An Aidspan report entitled, "Do Global Fund Grants Work for Women? An Assessment of the Gender Responsiveness of Global Fund-Financed Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa" has just been published. It is available at no charge, in English only, at www.aidspan.org/aidspanpublications. The report, by Angela Kageni and David Garmaise, provides findings from an analysis by Aidspan of all 211 approved proposals to the Global Fund that were submitted by countries in sub-Saharan Africa in Rounds 1-7. The study examined the extent to which these proposals included services and activities that were "gender responsive." (Programmes are said to be gender-responsive when they provide services specifically for women, promote equal access for women to services provided to both men and women, or include activities addressing other factors that contribute to gender inequality.) For five focus countries – Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia – Aidspan analyzed not just the proposals, but also the grants as implemented, to determine what results have been achieved for gender-related services and activities. The report also examines (a) how the lack of sex-disaggregated data hampers efforts to measure the impact of programmes on women; and (b) the role of the Global Fund in promoting gender-responsiveness. The findings of this report should be useful to CCMs, PRs, the Global Fund, women's groups, providers of technical support, and others with an interest in promoting the gender-responsiveness of programmes addressing HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. The main sections of the report are as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Background – Epidemiology, Gender Equality and Gender Responsiveness Chapter 3: Gender Responsiveness in Successful Global Fund Proposals from Sub-Saharan Africa Chapter 4: Results Achieved for Specific Gender-Related Activities in Five Focus Countries Chapter 5: Sex-Disaggregated Data Chapter 6: Review of Global Fund Structures, Policies and Processes Related to Gender Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusions

The report includes 21 tables providing study findings in summary form and in detail. The main findings are provided in the next article.