Understanding Grant Cycle (GC) 7

A country’s funding request to the Global Fund is developed into one or more grants through a process called grant-making. There are four parts to grant making of which civil society based organisations should be involved all the way:

 

  • Applying for funding
  • Grant making
  • Implementation
  • Grant closure

This video, available in English, summarizes key changes regarding the grant-making process for Grant Cycle 7 (2023 -2025 allocation period), and how Principal Recipients, the Global Fund Country Team and other in-country partners collaborate to design a quality, implementation-ready grant.

Strategy

 

The Global Fund works in three-year periods aligned with Strategy which guides the actions and priorities of the Global Fund. Currently the Global Fund is implementing its strategy called Fighting Pandemics and Building a Healthier and More Equitable World: Global Fund Strategy (2023-2028) which is accessible in عربي | English | Español | Français | Português | Русский

Achievement of the Strategy’s primary goal to end AIDS, TB and malaria is underpinned by four mutually reinforcing contributory objectives that leverage the core strengths and comparative advantages of the Global Fund’s unique partnership:

  • Maximizing people-cantered integrated systems for health to deliver impact, resilience and sustainability;
  • Maximizing the engagement and leadership of most affected communities to leave no one behind;
  • Maximizing health equity, gender equality and human rights; and
  • Mobilizing increased resources.

Eligibility

 

A country or region’s eligibility for Global Fund support is based on its income classification and disease burden, as outlined in the Global Fund’s Eligibility Policy also available in Français.

Grant Cycle 7 (GC7)

GC7 is now midway into its implementation. To better understand more about GC7 there are excellent resources produced by organisations in addition to the Global Fund official resources. Please see pages from partner organisations:

The grant-making section on the Global Fund website has been updated and consolidates resources for in-country partners for GC7. New or updated resources include:

  • The Principal Recipient Handbook for Grant-making (August 2023), which outlines responsibilities and key considerations for this stage of the cycle and guides PRs through the different steps of grant-making. Available in English  | Español  | Français
  • An e-learning module (July 2023) that provides an end-to-end overview of grant-making and is particularly helpful for new colleagues or those new to grant-making. Find out more about registering for iLearn here

As of June 2025

The external financing landscape for global health programs has and continues to significantly change and has had substantial impact on lifesaving services in HIV, TB and malaria – and most especially felt amongst key populations and community monitoring systems.

Whilst the Global Fund has received significant donor payments in recent weeks, the prospects for full conversion of the 7th Replenishment pledges remain uncertain. While they continue to pursue full pledge conversion, they are facing a significant gap between current grant commitments and available resources.

Given this challenge, the Global Fund took a decision to reduce the GC7 allocation for the remainder of the grants’ implementation period. This is a difficult and unavoidable decision, which requires countries to reconsider how best to use the remaining GC7 grant amounts together with domestic resources and other sources of funds to keep saving lives.

On 30th June every CCM was notified of each grant’s revised funding envelope, as part of the Grant Cycle 7 Reprioritization exercise.  This means many grants will need to prioritise and/or remove activities from their grants to remain within the new budget amount. Thanks to civil society partners the letters are being collected – click here to see more.

Countries with more than one grant have their first deadline today on the 14 July to review allocations but the rest of countries with one grant have up to 30 September.  For more information please click here