strengthened capacity at country level. The first results of the PCEs will be presented to the Strategy Committee in March 2018. As of the 38th Board Meeting, some of the process milestones achieved thus far include: three research consortia were selected through a competitive process to conduct the PCEs (the consortia are not named in the report); and eight countries have been selected: Congo (DRC), Cambodia, Guatemala, Mozambique, Myanmar, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda. TERG Documents Procedure At its October meeting, the Strategy Committee reviewed and approved a new “TERG Documents Procedure.” This decision is referenced but not discussed at any length in the TERG’s report to the Board. The purpose of this procedure is to provide a framework for the external publication of TERG documents, for public audiences. It is an attempt to balance calls for transparency with the Fund’s desire to, “protect the integrity and candor of internal decision-making.” In the early years of the Global Fund, TERG documents were generally all made available to the public. But this changed several years ago, when many TERG documents were deemed to fall within the “internally deliberative” category. This resulted in all TERG documents being withheld from the public. The Procedure sets up a process through which the TERG and the Global Fund Secretariat will review TERG documents on a case-by-case basis and make a determination, based on criteria set forth in the procedure, on whether to publish them externally or not. A third option would be to redact or revise an original document before external publishing. The Procedure says that exceptions to publication are expected to be rare. Implementation of the new TERG Documents Procedure should mean that most TERG documents will be made public again, thereby improving the transparency of the TERG, and the Global Fund overall. Board Document GF-B38-13 (Report of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group) should be available shortly at .
________________________________________________________________ This is issue #325 of the GLOBAL FUND OBSERVER (GFO) Newsletter. Please send all suggestions for news items, commentaries or any other feedback to the GFO Editor at . To subscribe to GFO, go to . GFO Newsletter is a free and independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (). Aidspan () is a Kenya-based international NGO that serves as an independent watchdog of the Global Fund, aiming to benefit all countries wishing to obtain and make effective use of Global Fund resources. Aidspan finances its work through grants from foundations and bilateral donors. Aidspan does not accept Global Fund money, perform paid consulting work, or charge for any of its products. The Board and staff of the Fund have no influence on, and bear no responsibility for, the content of GFO or of any other Aidspan publication. GFO Newsletter is now available in English and French. GFO Editor: David Garmaise (). Aidspan Executive Director: Ida Hakizinka (. Reproduction of articles in the Newsletter is permitted if the following is stated: "Reproduced from the , a service of Aidspan." Click to unsubscribe. GFO archives are available at . Copyright (c) 2017 Aidspan. All rights reserved.