THE PROBLEM

Building Resilient & Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) is one of the core goals of the Global Fund and a major area of investment. Strengthened health systems are fundamental to ending the HIV, TB, and Malaria epidemics and delivering equitable and effective health services to all, including key and vulnerable populations. For the Global Fund’s upcoming New Funding Model 4 (NFM4) cycle, countries are expected to be asked to perform an RSSH gap analysis.

As Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries move toward transition, investments in health systems to support sustainability become ever more crucial. The GF’s LAC team has therefore sought Pharos’ assistance in selecting specific inputs that will allow countries to prioritize RSSH investments needed to maximize impact on HIV, TB, and Malaria, as well as pandemic preparedness in the region.

To meet the needs of LAC countries, the GF is aiming to develop and deploy an RSSH prioritization tool that can complement the new RSSH gap assessment methodology, quantifying LAC countries’ most critical RSSH requirements and ranking these for inclusion in grant requests and under Unfunded Quality Demand.

THE PHAROS SOLUTION

The overall objective of this assignment is to help maximize the impact of RSSH investments for the LAC region in NFM4, while managing the additional work for the Global Fund by enabling their work on the RSSH components to focus on a small number of high-value investments tailored to specific country conditions.

The specific objectives are to:

1. Identify broadly areas of RSSH that are most needed by LAC countries and correspond to GF comparative advantage
2. Provide countries with a robust but clear and simple-to-use criteria-based priority setting tool to support NMF4 requests, and test the tool in three pilot countries (Guatemala, Paraguay, and Suriname) as a complement to the new RSSH gap tool
3. Based on (a) and (b), derive an approximate level or range of funding for RSSH in LAC to maximize impact and support sustainability without detracting from direct HIV, TB, and Malaria investments

LOOKING AHEAD

Deliverables will include:

1. Outputs from the desk review, Global Fund focus groups, and in-country partner interviews
2. The tested and refined country RSSH diagnostic and priority setting tool
3. Short write-ups of the three country pilot applications of the tool
4. A final deck/note summarizing all key findings and recommendations for RSSH investments in LAC, including arguments for an enhanced allocation of GF grant financing to the region and the use of the tool as a simply and focused way to define RSSH activities in NFM4

Status: Completed, July 2022 – January 2023

Team Members Involved: Robert Hecht, Catalina Gutierrez, Joan Tallada, and Grace Chen

For more information, contact Robert Hecht at [email protected].