The Global Fund Coordinating Unit (GFCU) of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning convened a three day meeting with Round 7 HIV grant implementers that was held in Mohale’s hoek district from February 2 to 4, 2010. The objective was to review the 18-months of phase 1 progress of Round 7 grant projects and come up with reviewed work plans in order to prepare the renewal  of Phase II proposal.

The participants were drawn from STI, HIV and AIDS directorate with all its units, Department of Social Welfare with representatives from Maseru, Mokhotlong and Berea districts, National Drug supply Organisation (NDSO), Ministry of Education with representatives from OVC bursaries, life skills unit of National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC), special education and Technical and Vocational Department (TVD).

Other participants were drawn from Lesotho Red Cross Society, Child Helpline project of the Lesotho Save the Children (LCS) and Child and Gender Protection Unit (CGPU) of the Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS), Representative from National AIDS Commission (NAC) Berea and Public Health Nurses and Nurse Clinicians from ART centers. Facilitators were Principal Recipient (PR) staff drawn from GFCU/MOFDP.

The meeting started with the presentation of National Coordinator Mrs. Nkhala Sefako indicating the Lesotho’s performance of the R7 HIV grant in order to remind the participants on scarce time left before end of phase I of the grant as well as activities to consider when reviewing phase II work plans before proposal submission on March 15, 2010.

Among specific activities that experienced challenges during  R7 grant implementation are life skills syllabus manual printing, starter-up for vocational students as well as payment of community health workers, delay in recruitment of professional social workers and medical doctors for children with HIV as well as the delayed  implementation of OVC essential services project in the three districts.

The overall challenges of this grant are procurement delays, capacity challenge, challenge in data collection that the Coordinator appealed to the implementers to make improvement on those areas.

“The main challenges face implementer s are that of absorbing the fund accordingly, fulfilling the set targets and accountability and reporting which all need to be addressed in order to pave way for improved country’s performance,” she added.

Mrs. Sefako indicated that Global Fund projects are life saving programs giving example of PMTCT that save babies from deadly virus of HIV and that of OVC essential services project which saves and build the future of the Basotho nation. Therefore she noted that the grant projects are not just statistics but are touching and transforming human lives.

The implementing participants were also required to recommend the areas that will be cut in order to reduce the budget by 25% as recommended by the Global Fund secretariat.

The participants were then divided in seven groups as per Round 7 objectives to work with specific activities of their area of expertise as follows: 1. Procurement, 2. Education, 3. Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), 4. OVC,  5. Child Protection 6. Human Resource as well as Monitoring and Evaluation and Performance framework.

The total budget  for R7 grant was US$33,264,804; the phase I budget which covers year 1 and 2 was US$10,626,665 and the proposed budget for phase II which covers year 3 to 5 is US$22,638,139. However, if Global Fund requires each country to cut their budget by 25%, the available Lesotho budget for R7 phase II grant may be approximately US$15,721,973. If succeed, the phase II grant implementation is scheduled to start on July 2010.