MAXIMIZING POSITIVE SYNERGIES - World Health Organization

Discussion
GHIs are critical for rapid scale-up of services, which would not otherwise be feasible with scarce
in-country resources. To achieve rapid scale-up and impressive results, the programmes may have
to work independently/vertically during the initial years. But unlike disease eradication
programmes, TB, HIV and malaria are long-term challenges. As countries work to control these
epidemics, they need to avoid creating parallel structures that are unsustainable in the absence of
external funding.
Ghana is an ideal example of a country with an existing system for improved donor coordination
and with scope for an integrated approach to address systemic challenges in the delivery of
disease-specific interventions. To maximize the benefits and limit negative spillover effects, the
Global Fund needs to be more actively engaged at the country level, moving away from a model
that involves repeated rounds of competitive proposal submission and project approval to a more
predictable and sustainable funding mechanism.
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