A Strategic Approach to Capacity Development

When acting as interim Principal Recipient (PR) UNDP must; i) achieve results; ii) meet the operational requirements of the Global Fund and other donors; and iii) achieve high levels of performance.  In July 2016, UNDP was managing 35 grants in 22 countries, as well as 3 regional grants in South Asia, Asia Pacific and Africa. UNDP consistently achieves high performance with fifty four percent of UNDP grants in 2016 rated A1 or A2 (“exceed” or “meet expectations”) by the Global Fund.

At the same time the approach to capacity development is central to all UNDP programmes. This starts with identifying a baseline of current capacity to inform the design of health programmes and Global Fund grants. All effective decisions during the design, approval and implementation of health programmes and Global Fund grants contribute to capacity development by; strengthening systems; enhancing knowledge; building ownership and; alignment with national policies, to increase sustainability. Capacity development is also achieved through the programme or grant implementation arrangements ensuring national systems for health are strengthened and used where possible for key functions such as programme, monitoring & evaluation (M&E), financial management, forecasting and supply chain management. These incremental improvements help reduce the barriers to accessing essential care and the strengthening of systems for health enable health workers to improve the quality and delivery of services.

The actual implementation of the health projects and Global Fund grants is aligned with national strategies and national disease responses to ensure that any capacity development interventions contribute to the results of national programmes. Greater ownership and leverage is achieved by ensuring the project and grant performance indicators and capacity development results are aligned to national strategies.