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Scalable, replicable programs

Moving the Money: Rapid Funding for HIV/AIDS Programs

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has galvanized donors, governments, and organizations around the world to work together like never before. Despite new promises of massive funding for HIV/AIDS programs, accessing funds in the hardest-hit countries can take months, if not years. Two years ago, the East African country of Tanzania was such a place.

The RFE funds various Tanzanian organizations to implement HIV/AIDS programs targeting youth. Photo by Carmen Urdaneta, 2004.In Tanzania, as in many African countries, the HIV/AIDS epidemic had reached crisis proportions. Tanzanian civil society organizations could not cease activities as they waited for funding; they therefore proceeded to implement small-scale HIV/AIDS projects, lacking the necessary funds for scale-up or expansion. The Tanzanian Commission for HIV/AIDS (TACAIDS) and donors recognized the need for a more rapid process to fund these organizations while bigger, longer-term projects organized.

In 2002, TACAIDS and eight donor partners1 established the Rapid Funding Envelope for HIV/AIDS (RFE), enabling civil society organizations and partnerships to implement short-term HIV/AIDS projects that contribute to the long-term national strategy. With technical oversight provided by MSH and Deloitte & Touche, the RFE not only fully validates a common sense of urgency for a stronger, faster, and more committed response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but also demonstrates the possibilities created by multi-donor partnerships united around a common goal.

Since 2002, the RFE has:

  • Responded to more than 1,000 expressions of interest and to 880 concept letters
  • Awarded $3.5 million to 23 organizations in all regions of Tanzania

1 Canadian International Development Agency, Embassy of Finland, Ireland Aid, Royal Danish Embassy, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, USAID

Program description More information on the Rapid Funding
      Envelope for HIV/AIDS [PDF - 275KB]

Program description More information about RFE recipients
      [PDF - 15KB]

Program description Read more about RFE [PDF - 1.24MB]

Read about RFE grantee organizations

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  RFE: The Results
  RFE grants have resulted in:
  HIV education materials in Braille
  Provision of food security to people living with AIDS
  Legal advice for wills and inheritance
  New HIV voluntary counseling and testing sites
  Community theater for at-risk youth
  A new curriculum to train pharmacists on dispensing antiretrovirals
  Scaling-up holistic approaches to AIDS care
  Better understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on elderly Tanzanians

 
"Why sit and wait for a year and do nothing? We came together to form the Rapid Funding Envelope because the longer we wait, people die. This is an emergency."
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

 
  Innovative Features of the RFE
  Low-cost, high-tech grant-making with fast turnaround
  Provides short-term funding contributing long-term strategies
  Improves capacity for sound financial management of HIV/AIDS projects
  Maximizes use of resources through multi-sectoral collaboration
  Locally-governed and in partnership
  Paperless, low-cost application and allocation process conducted through email

 
"The idea of the Rapid Funding Envelope was a pleasant surprise.donor funds are usually not rapid. By the time donor funds arrive, the situation may have changed and the needs may be different. The RFE was much more rapid."
RFE Grantee