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UNDP-Global Fund and Health Implementation

Guidance Manual

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Key considerations for indicator selection

When developing a Performance Framework, please:

1) Ensure that the selected indicators are:

  • relevant to the type of the epidemic and aligned with the national programme priorities and interventions supported by the grants;
  • appropriate for measuring the goals and objectives of the programme;

  • selected from the core list, including the following:

    • impact and outcome
    • coverage of population receiving services
    • quality (for example, attrition rate on ART, treatment success rate for TB, External Quality Assessment (EQA) of labs)
    • gender, and
    • equity (disaggregation by target population/target area)
  • appropriate for monitoring progress of impact, outcome and coverage at national level (in some cases, these may be reported at subnational or project level);
  • relevant to the target groups being reached by the grant;
  • supported by adequate systems for the collecting and reporting of high-quality data, or by M&E system strengthening investment to enable such reporting;
  • ideally, the selected indicators should be captured in the national M&E Plan.

2) Identify indicators for which disaggregated data will be required (at the time of results reporting) to assess equity across various age and sex groups and the key populations. NEW in GC7: disaggregated results reporting will be expected only once a year (in NFM3/GC6 the High-Impact and Core Countries reported disaggregated results each semester).

3) Check the capacity for data collection, reporting and analysis and identify any need for system strengthening / technical assistance.

  • Indicators with no related M&E system in place should be supported by a clear plan and adequate budget to develop the required system.
  • If baselines and denominators are not available, propose an action plan to the Global Fund Country Team for collecting these; the plan should include clear timeframes.

Note that process and input indicators are not included in the Performance Framework.

NEW in GC7 Funding Cycle

Under GC7, the inclusion of coverage indicators is prioritized by groups. The following prioritization guidance should be used by non-COE countries when selecting indicators into the Performance Framework.

  • Group 1 - Selected HIV, TB, malaria, RSSH and Equity, Human Rights and Gender (EHRG) KPIs and indicators critical for monitoring success of the Global Fund strategy - to be included in all grants. Must have for modules supported by the grant with possibility to "opt-out” i.e. If a "Group 1" indicator is not included in the Performance Framework, the PHME/Country Teams will need to explain the rationale in the Grant Making Final Review Form (GMFRF).
  • Group 2 - Indicators essential for monitoring implementation of key disease and RSSH interventions - at least 1-2 to be included per module as applicable to the grant.
  • Group 3 - Indicators specific to a particular context or for routine grant monitoring – advised to be included as per relevance and relative funding for these specific modules/interventions.
  • Inclusion of Equity, Human Rights and Gender (EHRG) indicators is mandatory.
  • Priority in selecting indicators should be given to Group 1, followed by Group 2 indicators. IMPORTANT: All indicators once included in the Performance Framework are of equal value. Classification as Group 2 or 3 does not make the indicator non-essential or less important during grant performance assessment.
See detailed guidance in the Indicator Guidance Sheets for each disease and RSSH (available in English, French and Spanish).

Practice Pointer

In the selection of Group 3 indicators the criteria of relevance and relative funding is used. Thus, if a country is undertaking an important initiative/intervention (in line with its NSP) and the budget is deemed considerable*, then a group 3 indicator needs to be included. Example: If Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) is one of the strategies of malaria prevention in the NSP and if the intervention has meaningful budgets from the GF, then the CCM can propose the inclusion of the Group 3 indicator "Proportion of population at risk receiving at least one round of IRS within the last 12 months in areas targeted for IRS"

*There is no predefined budget threshold and indicators should be selected based on relevance to the grant.
Indicator selection for Focused Countries

Based on a holistic set of criteria including allocation size, allocation focus, in-country capacities and political context, in consultation with in-country and Global Fund stakeholders, each Focused portfolio is designated a specific model type.

There are four model types – Aligned, Targeted, Light and Legacy. Each type is described in-depth on the Global Fund webpage on Focused portfolio management models. The Allocation Letter informs Focused portfolios of their model for the 2023-2025 Period.

Focused country models 1 (Aligned) and 2 (Targeted) - Required indicators selected based on Payment for Results (PfR) objectives to be measured. The indicator prioritization guidance does not apply.

Focused country models 3 (Light) and 4 (Legacy) - Recommended to include "Group 1" indicators with possibility to opt out. Additional indicators may be included as applicable.

NEW in GC7 Funding Cycle

In the NFM3/GC6 funding cycle, for Focused portfolios, it was recommended to have a limited number of indicators in Performance Framework (e.g., 1-5 impact/outcome and 3-5 coverage indicators, approximately 6-8 in total) covering only the key program area/modules supported by the grant. Please note that in GC7 this is no longer the case – there is no longer an upper ceiling for a number of indicators in the Performance Framework. It is the indicator grouping that drives prioritisation.

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