Child Blindness Program Technical Assistance Report

The program is managed by Partners for Global Research and Development (PGRD) and provides technical assistance and capacity building to grantees as needed for both routine program/financial reporting and complex programmatic issues requiring expertise in pediatric eye-care delivery and treatment. CBP has completed three competitive grant rounds, with Grant Round 1 commencing in January 2014 and resulting in the selection of 16 projects for funding. Grant Round 2 commenced in November 2014, which resulted in the selection of 21 grant projects for funding. During the reporting period, 19 of these projects began implementation. Grant Round 3's solicitation and selection process ended in March 2016, which resulted in the selection of 10 projects for funding. PGRD provides support to all grantees from grant start-up through the grant close-out process, including assistance with financial management, provision of necessary technical assistance, collection and reporting of grantee's evaluation data, and management of successful close-out for all grants. Support for grantees falls within two main categories: administrative support and technical assistance. Administrative support includes required project reporting, administrative functions related to clinical operations, financial guidance with USAID specific requirements, management of project funds and procurement. Technical assistance encompasses specialized programmatic feedback and capacity building in the clinical aspects of pediatric eye-care. During the reporting period, CBP staff worked closely with Grant Round 1 and 2 applicants and grantees to provide both routine administrative support and more tailored technical assistance. This included developing annual work plans and monitoring and evaluation plans, financial budgeting, tracking and documenting cost share, completing required Environmental Mitigation Plans, interpreting branding and marking regulations, obtaining price quotes and evaluating equipment, and setting project milestones. CBP has created processes to identify an organization's need for technical assistance at all points of the grant life cycle, including the application review period, the pre-award negotiation phase, and the post-award project implementation phase. CBP continued to follow the initial process of reviewing applications, which included a thorough review by the CBP Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC), comprised of CBP, IEF and USAID staff as well as external subject matter experts. CBP solicits written feedback from each TEC evaluator during the application review stage and convenes multiple TEC meetings to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each application. The need for assistance for some grantees can be determined prior to grant award; however, other grantees may encounter unforeseen challenges during project implementation. While CBP specifically addresses the availability of technical support during a project, some grantees may not immediately realize that assistance is needed, and/or are unclear that help is available. In order to identify assistance opportunities, CBP closely monitors each grant primarily through mandatory quarterly reporting. CBP has established a detailed tracking system for grantee milestone and report submissions, which tracks submission dates and regularly flags grantees that have passed due dates for milestones and reports. CBP staff work collaboratively with the grantee to build technical assistance activities into their grant award when grantees are identified as requiring structured technical assistance. This includes developing a tailored technical assistance plan that addresses the specific needs of the grantee. The plan may include hands-on training in-country or at another site, classroom training, or clinical observations. Technical assistance may be provided by the TAG, but may also be provided by an external consultant. The International Eye Foundation (IEF) serves as a sub-contractor, providing direct technical expertise to the program on a continuous basis. IEF has been instrumental in providing technical assistance to grantees, particularly in the areas of pediatric eye-care delivery and treatment. IEF has also provided training and capacity building to grantees, which has helped to improve the quality of eye care services delivered to children and vulnerable populations. Overall, the Child Blindness Program has made significant progress in expanding the delivery of quality eye care services to children and vulnerable populations worldwide. The program's technical assistance and capacity building efforts have been instrumental in improving the quality of eye care services delivered to children and vulnerable populations.