A CCM needs to be established for a country to become eligible for funding by the Global Fund. It has five core functions:

1. Coordinate the development and submission of a national Funding Request. For communities, this means ensuring that the fund request includes and engaged with key populations and affected communities in the country dialogues, as well as taking part in the country’s writing teams.
2. Nominate the Principal Recipient (PR). This includes ensuring that the PR understands and has a potentially good working relationship with communities by assessing the capacity of the potential PRs.
3. Oversee implementation of the approved grant. This may involve participating in the oversight committee and engages in the PR during the management of the grant.
4. Approve any reprogramming requests. This requires understanding of the broader epidemiological context and priority needs to the communities and key populations affected by any of the three diseases to make sure that targets of the country grant is achieved.
5. Ensure linkages and consistency between the Global Fund’s grants and other national health and development programs. This requires a broader understanding of the national health systems and community systems that are in place, its needs and priorities, and the sustainability and transition plans of the country. In ensuring transition, communities should advocate inclusion of a transition plan within the grant either by exploring domestic resources should The Global Fund cease to support the country.

Governance is one of the primary role of the CCM towards making strategic, wise, and ethical decisions. These decisions must respond addresses the gaps in achieving the targets of the three diseases. It should also be driven by a collective mission and centered on people, especially key populations and those who are either affected of living with the three diseases.

Governance of the CCM is aligned with the Global Fund Principles, which are (a) partnership, (b) inclusiveness, (c) transparency, (d) accountability, (e) oversight, (f) conflict of interest management, and (g) equality in decision-making.

CCM’s governance are summarized into four key practices. and communities must know how to employ these areas to allow broader and more effective participation on behalf of the broader constituency.

1. Cultivating accountability. The Codes of Conduct within the CCM must be established, practiced, and enforced. Different reports (ie. finances, activities, plans, and outcomes) must also be made available publicly, and should be shared to wider constituencies.
2. Engaging stakeholders. As community representatives to the CCM, there is a need to ensure that key populations are empowered to participate more effectively by providing a space for key populations to consult with their constituencies and building their capacities to become more effective CCM members.
3. Setting shared direction. Being central to the CCM, communities must engage in shaping and implementing shared action plans with proper consultations from constituencies.
4. Stewarding resources. Key populations and communities play a critical role in making sure that the budget allocation and management are aimed to achieve key result areas and realize the outcomes of the grant, to include impacting those most affected by the three diseases, and strengthening community systems.

Governance functions of the CCM are shaped during the development of the CCM’s Framework documents, which establishes the policies, rules, and regulations of the CCM.

While not required by The Global Fund, a smaller group of CCM members is formed, and this is called the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee monitors the implementation of and proposes recommendations for improvements on the following documents:

1. CCM By-laws or Constitution, which details the functions of CCM, its composition and structure, and responsibilities;
2. CCM Governance Manual, which includes how decisions will be undertaken and made;
3. Risk management Guidelines, which includes approaches to manage potential risks during the management of the grant; and
4. CCM Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy, which contains guidelines in making decisions to ensure that conflicts of interests that might affect grant management of PRs and SRs are documented, managed, and mitigated.

Oversight is a core function of CCMs to cultivate accountability and steward resources. Contrary to an Executive Committee, an Oversight Committee is required by The Global Fund to be formed within the CCM. It is usually composed of five to nine members and may include non-CCM members with technical set of skills. Some of the specific functions of the oversight function of the CCM are as follows:

1. Oversee PRs to ensure achievement of agreed grant targets based on Oversight Plan. It is important for community representatives at the CCM to be familiar with the oversight plan and provide advise to the PR to ensure that the grant targets are achieved, and implementation gaps, especially in reaching out communities, are addressed.
2. Engages with the PR throughout the funding cycle. Communities must maintain a close relationship with the PR and helps guide the PR through regular updates and site visits.
3. Reviews dashboards and progress reports. Communities need to be capacitated on the usage of and analysis of dashboards and of progress reports and provide advise on how the grant management and implementation can be improved.
4. Participate in site visits. More than anyone else, key populations and communities understand more the dynamics and the context of and how their constituencies are affected by the three diseases. Participating in site visits is crucial for key populations and community representatives to the CCM to observe the grant implementation and provide insights to address the gaps in reaching the grant targets.

The current Funding Model has introduced a number of mechanisms where civil society groups, community organisations and key population networks can actively participate. It is important to coordinate with your CCM secretariat to introduce your organisation and to indicate your interest to engage in CCM processes.

Below are examples of mechanisms where you can directly engage and participate:

• During country dialogues that need to be organised to develop the funding request;
• During community consultations that need to be conducted by country programs to develop or review national strategic plans;
• During the country visit of the country team, you can reach out to your Fund Portfolio Manager to see if you can request for a meeting;
• While the Funding Request is being developed, you can indicate that you wish to provide evidence on interventions that work for the community;
• You can inform the CCM of your interest to be a member representing a non-governmental constituency;
• You can attend CCM meetings and request an intervention if you wish to bring up a concern that relates to your key population, or to people living with the disease

You can also reach out to your community representatives and allies in the CCM to push them to be your voice inside the CCM.

Where national processes sometimes impose restrictions to or limitations for civil society, community-led organisations, and key population to participate, CCMs have clear guidance from the Global Fund on the role of communities and key populations.

Read: CCM Policy including Principles and Requirements

By engaging in CCM processes, you can:

• Access opportunities to influence national strategies in addressing HIV, TB, and/or malaria;
• Provide inputs to the CCM, implementers of national programmes, and other stakeholders to ensure allocative efficiency, especially to guarantee that funding for the three diseases go to key populations;
• Take part in existing mechanisms to oversee and monitor the implementation of Global Fund-supported programs; and
• Engage different stakeholders to develop, review, or enhance HIV, TB, and malaria programs, including those that are not directly or fully funded by the Global Fund.

The CCM Evolution has introduced reforms that require greater involvement and meaningful participation of civil society, community-led organisations, and key population networks in the CCM processes.

To access Global Fund financing, it is mandatory for CCMs to observe Global Fund requirements that guarantee participation and involvement of multiple stakeholders. Compliance to these requirements are monitored by the Global Fund every year and with every grant application.

The Requirements are:

• Requirement 1: Conducting broad, transparent, and documented processes to develop funding requests and to engage multiple stakeholders, from CCM members to non-CCM members, especially key populations and most at-risk populations, in developing and reviewing proposed activities.
• Requirement 2: Conducting an open and transparent process to select the principal recipient for funding requests.
• Requirement 3: Submitting and implementing an oversight plan for approved grant, which include the engagement of multiple stakeholders in oversight activities, from CCM members to non-CCM members, in particular civil society organisations, NGOs, and key populations.
• Requirement 4: Showing evidence that the membership of the CCM include people who are living with AND representing people living with HIV, TB, and/or malaria, including people from or people representing key populations based on epidemiological, gender, and human rights considerations.
• Requirement 5: Ensuring that the non-government members of the CCM are elected solely by their own non-government constituencies in a transparent and documented process developed by the constituencies themselves. At least 40% of CCM members should be from non-government constituencies.
• Requirement 6: Ensuring that there are mechanisms for conflict of interest that will be applied and documented thoroughly, and that CCM members periodically declare conflicts of interest affecting themselves or other CCM members. CCM members are barred from taking part in decisions where there are clear conflicts of interest.

These eligibility requirements are also the basis of some minimum standards that are needed to ensure that CCMs are effective in performing their mandates. For instance, equal representation within the CCM; having a clear mechanism to solicit inputs and provide feedback to its constituencies; and the leadership of the CCM (Chair and Co-Chair) should represent the multi-stakeholder nature of the CCM.

Two requirements, Requirements 4 and 5, fall under membership. These requirements must be met to become eligible for funding:

1. CCM members must include people who are living with AND representing people living with HIV, TB, and/or malaria, to include people from key populations.
2. CCM members for non-government constituencies must be selected based on transparent process developed and documented by their constituency.
3. Government and development partner members select their representatives based on their policies and procedures.
4. At least 30% of CCM members are women and at least 40% are from NGOs and communities.

1. Preparation and Attendance. CCM meetings usually happens every quarter, or once every three months. Prior to these meetings, KP and NGO representatives in the CCM need to be knowledgeable about the different agenda items to be discussed, including analysis of agenda and information, and ensuring that the key points for deliberation are reflective of the issues and priorities of your constituency.
2. Constituency engagement. A critical aspect in CCM participation is constituency engagement. While the representation is usually a person, they should be accountable more than to their organization but to a wider constituency of key populations and communities, which means speaking and making decisions on their behalf. This requires regular meetings and consultations with their constituencies.
3. Willingness to serve. A civil society or community’s role as a CCM member is guided by the CCM’s Terms of Reference (ToR). A CCM member must be familiar with this ToR and identify any conflicts of interest that might arise. It is also ideal that the CCM member works with fellows and colleagues that represent other communities and build and bridge partnerships among other CCM members.
4. Strategic and honest conversations. Communities are key populations that not only bring the voices but also bring the heart and humanity into the CCM conversations. Community CCM members must exercise conversations that will speak truth to power.
5. Adherence, compliance, respect. As CCM members, communities must adhere to the Global Fund principles and expectations as well as be familiar with the CCM governance policies and by-laws. This includes complying with decisions and declaring conflicts of interests where possible, as well as respect opinions of others

CCMs also have an allocation of 15% from its CCM Funding to support constituency engagement for non-governmental sector activities, including civil society and key, vulnerable population groups to promote and improve the quality of stakeholder participation. Failure to comply with this requirement may affect subsequent disbursement decisions and total funding allocation. Activities that can be supported are representation activities, preparation as incoming CCM members, participation in CCM meeetings, and establishing a bi-drectional communication and consultation facility between key population, community-led and civil society organisations and their constituency.

The performance of CCMs are regularly appraised by the Global Fund secretariat, which looks into the compliance of the CCM to eligibility requirements and and minimum standards.

It is important to inform your CCM secretariat that compliance to these requirements and minimum standards are mandatory. Proactively engage the CCM to ensure that communities and key populations are properly consulted. Moreover, inform them that consulting communities and key populations is a requirement for eligibility, and if possible, you may also directly conduct consultations for your own communities and present the results and documentation of your consultations to the CCM.

The Global Fund has alsodeveloped guidelines on how to meet these requirements and minimum standards, and in these guidelines, additional good governance standards and recommendations are included to aid CCMs on how to be more effective in fulfilling its mandate. You can download these guidelines here.

You can also encourage your CCM to seek technical assistance from the Global Fund secretariat to improve its compliance with the guidelines. Support may be given to CCM to enhance its capacity to engage civil society, community-based organisations, and key populations.

If, despite your efforts to engage, your CCM still refuse to involve CSOs, communities and key populations, you may elevate your concern to the Global Fund Secretariat (Email: [email protected]; Fax: +41 58 791 1701. Address your communication to the CCM Hub, “Attention CCM Hub”).

The Global Fund publishes online the directory of CCM focal points, officers, and members, including similar coordinating mechanisms established for multi-country programmes.  Here’s the list CCMs for the Asia-Pacific region.