The RISE Study of Global Fund CCMs

22 April 2024

About

The Representation, Inclusion, Sustainability, and Equity (RISE) study is a global, independent, civil society-owned research project to assess the accountability of Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) to communities and civil society. RISE is led by a consortium of community representatives on CCMs and global civil society partners, with representatives from 13 organizations across 11 countries.

The RISE Study: Measuring meaningful engagement in CCMs

With 2023 marking both the start of the Grant Cycle 7 (GC7, corresponding to 2023–2025) and the first year of the new Strategy, the Representation, Inclusion, Sustainability, and Equity (RISE) study was launched to assess the meaningful participation of communities and civil society in CCMs. These findings are intended to serve as a tool to support the strengthening of community engagement, as articulated in the Global Fund’s Strategy.

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Findings

The RISE study focused on measuring facilitators and challenges along a continuum of participation. This conceptual framework supposes that meaningful CCM engagement requires the following:

1. Engagement. Are community and civil society representatives included, present, and involved in governance structures?
2. Equipping. Are the community and civil society representatives in the governance spaces afforded the tools they need to be able to do their mandated tasks and meaningfully contribute?
3. Empowerment. In their role as representatives on governance structures, are communities and civil society empowered to hold governments, PRs, and other stakeholders accountable for delivering services?

Recommendations

The Global Fund CCM model is a unique and innovative strategy to ensure country ownership and to facilitate engagement between governments, technical partners, and communities impacted by the three diseases. Empowered with a decision-making role in resource mobilization, service delivery arrangements, and programmatic and fiduciary oversight, the CCMs are positioned to act as a linchpin of countries’ public health and development programming and funding streams. The RISE study findings highlight the immense opportunity that CCMs hold for meaningful community engagement, redressing accountability imbalances, and strategically increasing transparency and collaboration between communities and key public health stakeholders.

The CCM model, as a multi-stakeholder governance structure, is a tool to rise above power structures and national political contexts with the aim of creating a genuinely collaborative space for engagement and decision-making. Several key Global Fund policies and initiatives serve to reinforce this objective, and findings from the RISE study have reaffirmed the contributions of this guidance, support, and oversight. Continuing to support meaningful engagement of communities in CCMs, particularly in contexts with challenging political, programmatic, and financial dynamics, will require a sustained and nuanced approach. The RISE study has identified several key recommendations for strengthening and tailoring this support, which have been developed and validated by the RISE steering committee.
Recommendations to Strengthen Community Engagement:

1. Strengthen Secretariat-led initiatives to inform CCM representatives and other Global Fund partners and about CCM policies and guidelines
2. Increase support for community engagement throughout the three-year cycle
3. Implement data-sharing mechanism that ensures on-time, accessible, and translated information about grant performance and financing.
4. Build funding streams that support peer-to-peer mentoring of community CCM representatives
5. Implement reporting mechanisms that ensure sufficient and transparent funding streams for community participation in Global Fund mechanisms
6. Implement a cross-country learning forum for community CCM representatives
7. Strengthen accountability mechanisms for reporting misconduct, abuse; strengthen whistleblowing and expand outreach