The emergence of opportunities for support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) for HIV-related projects has so far generated funding of over US$75 million for three proposals in Peru. The size of this investment creates the need for close monitoring to ensure a reasonable impact. This paper describes the effects of collaboration with the GFATM on key actors involved in HIV-related activities and on decision-making processes; on health sector divisions; on policies and sources of financing; on equity of access; and on stigma and discrimination of vulnerable and affected populations. Data analysed included primary data collected through interviews with key informants, in-depth interviews and group discussions with vulnerable and affected populations, as well as several public documents. Multisectorality, encouraged by the GFATM, is incipient; centralist proposals with limited consultation, a lack of consensus and short preparation times prevail. No accountability mechanisms operate at the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) level regarding CCM members or society as a whole. GFATM-funded activities have required significant input from the public sector, sometimes beyond the capacity of its human resources. A significant increase in HIV funding, in absolute amounts and in fractions of the total budget, has been observed from several sources including the National Treasury, and it is unclear whether this has implied reductions in the budget for other priorities. Patterns of social exclusion of people living with HIV/AIDS are diverse: children and women are more valued; while transgender persons and sex workers are often excluded.

No abstract

No abstract

2 Peru has applied to six of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) rounds for funding, achieving success on four occasions. The process of proposal development has, however, been criticised, especially concerning the use of evidence, relevance/consistency, and performance indicators.We aimed to analyse the Peruvian Global Fund proposals according to those dimensions, providing feedback to improve future local efforts and inform global discussions around Global Fund procedures. We analysed the content of four HIV-focused proposals (rounds 2, 5, 6 and 8) regarding epidemic context, needs identification and prioritisation, and monitoring and evaluation systems.Peruvian proposals submitted after round 1 were described as resulting from collaborative inputs involving formerly unrepresented sectors, principally 'vulnerable populations'. However, difficulties arose regarding the amount and quality of evidence about the epidemiological context; limited consideration of social determinants of the epidemic; lack of theory-driven interventions and little synergy across projects; and the inclusion of weak monitoring and evaluation systems, with poor indicators and measurement procedures.Prioritising the development of analytical and technical skills to generate Global Fund proposals would enhance the country's capacity to produce and utilise evidence, improve the technical-political interface, strengthen information systems, and lead to more informed decisionmaking and accountability. HIV/AIDS proposal elaboration processes have undergone different phases in Peru. The unsuccessful proposal for round 1 (which was not available and does not form part of this analysis) was formulated independently by the Ministry of Health. This proposal was followed by three consecutive, successful proposals (rounds 2, 5, and 6) and another unsuccessful proposal submitted for round 8. A new proposal submitted for round 10 under the special provision for key populations has recently been approved but was also not part of this analysis. The proposal approved for the 10th round (for US$12.5 million) in 2011 brought the total amount for HIV/AIDS activities by the Global Fund to approximately US$90 million (Global Fund, 2010). Table 1 presents a brief description of the four proposals that served as a basis for this study. from one proposal to the other; c) to assess whether the proposals include the appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating impacts and outcomes. These three dimensions encompass the key technical aspects of a programmatic proposal, all of which should be evidence-based: background, goals and activities, and performance assessment. For each of these objectives, we formulated indicators intended to operationalise the key dimensions identified for analysis (see Table 2). Study limitationsThis study has limitations such as the difficulty in defining a single, detailed evaluation framework across different proposals in an evolving context; restrictions in assessing the context where eac...

In order to test the hypothesis that elevation may be an important factor accounting for the distribution of myxomycetes in tropical forests, this project was designed and conducted in Costa Rica. Two lower elevational belts were selected for this work due to their floristic and structural resemblance. Using the moist chamber technique, 40 different sites located in four different transects in two different macroclimatic regions were surveyed using three substrates during the rainy and the dry periods of 2014 and 2015. The results showed a lack of differences in diversity-based estimators according to elevation using different approaches and taxonomic differences were found across transects, collecting periods and substrates but not in relation with elevation either. Our results suggest that when increased spatial sampling resolution is implemented and floristic elements are common, elevation may not be as important of a factor in shaping the distribution of myxomycetes in tropical forests as commonly believed.