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Health system strengthening through the UNDP-Global Fund partnership
Health system strengthening through the UNDP-Global Fund partnership
January 30, 2024
The Reflections series synthesizes lessons from past evaluations to support organizational learning about what works and what doesn't. This paper examines past evaluations to provide seven lessons from the UNDP partnership with the Global Fund:
- Capacity-strengthening is a long-term process that requires sustained effort over time. UNDP was most successful when it used systematic approaches to assess and develop capacity. This involved providing end-to-end support tailored to the specific country context and the needs of its partners.
- Fostering national ownership facilitated the timely transfer of principal recipient roles to national entities. UNDP was most successful in promoting national ownership when pursuing a tailored and phased approach to the transitions of grants, and leveraging existing tools and frameworks to help governments establish plans with concrete milestones and timelines.
- Inclusive health governance helped health systems meet the needs of those most likely to be left behind. Most progress in this area was made when Global Fund Country Coordination Mechanisms were empowered to foster stakeholder collaboration and participatory decision-making during the design and implementation of programmes.
- Anti-corruption, transparency and accountability measures were important enablers of health system strengthening, particularly when country systems were fragile. Few successful entry points for UNDP were captured in evaluations. However, other literature pointed to the implementation of risk-based frameworks for corruption prevention, fiduciary control and internal audit systems in national institutions, and promoting social accountability, including using digital technology, as promising avenues.
- Where UNDP operated in crisis and post-crisis countries with early recovery mandates, a flexible approach that balanced fiduciary controls with programmatic results worked best to strengthen health systems and programmes.
- A strong health system requires effective procurement and supply chain management. UNDP efforts to leverage its global procurement architecture and expertise to support health procurement efforts proved particularly effective in crisis-affected countries and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Strong partnerships facilitate health system strengthening. UNDP was most successful in implementing Global Fund grants and building resilient and sustainable systems for health when leveraging its strong presence at country, regional and global levels, as well as its longstanding partnerships with major global health partners.
