Country-based pooled funds (CBPFs) are multi-donor humanitarian financing instruments established by the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). They are managed by OCHA, which is a United Nations (UN) body, at the country-level under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC). CBPFs are intended to allocate funding based on humanitarian priorities. With the increasing focus on pooled funds, there is a greater pressure on the various pooled funds to ensure transparency and efficiency; guarantee robust procedures to comply with donor conditions; and respond to prioritized humanitarian needs without imposing undue burdens on humanitarian actors. This can be achieved with the help of the Grants management system (GMS). Grants management system (GMS) is a web-based grant tracking solution package that supports the working of the entire grant life cycle for all Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) which includes management of tasks, reports and important grant documents. Functions can include grant discovery, budget planning, peer collaboration, regulatory compliance, proposal submission, administrative reporting and project tracking and plus provides personalized email reminders for application deadlines and report due dates.

GMS is a mandatory tool for CBPFs and an essential management tool for OCHA's fund managers. The GMS promotes efficiency, effectiveness and supports risk management. GMS enables to combine business processes while also catering to the special needs of each fund. The system strengthens OCHA's data analysis and information management capacity. GMS not only acts as a platform for the smooth allocation of funds but also enables the stakeholders to exchange information among them and to support them in performing their functions. From project proposal submission by grant recipients till project completion which involves various stages like evaluation, allocation, reporting, monitoring, performance management of partner and risk management, all are tracked into the GMS system in real time. This ensures that procedures, tools, decisions, and mechanisms are clearly and openly communicated – in a timely and transparent manner – which helps to build greater trust in the funding mechanism. GMS provides tools for sending reminders and also to receive feedback. Tools are available to schedule and automate sending of personalized bulk emails and monitoring and reporting activities. The interactive dashboards in GMS allow easily keeping track of and managing grant programs, applications and reviews. The system supports fund managers in the implementation of due diligence processes and agreed upon control mechanisms. Helps to maintain audit trails, generate powerful reports and keep track of all monitoring activities and disbursements. Enables to customize workflows and tasks for individual CBPFs. The GMS system is integrated with other related online systems, including OCHA Contribution Tracking System, OCHA Financial Tracking Service, and UNDP's MPTF Gateway. This real time access to data allows OCHA to quickly provide information and analysis on questions raised both at the field and headquarters level. GMS' Business Intelligence modules are publicly accessible and will provide real time data, including commitments, contributions, allocations, recipient partners, geographical coverage, and funding distribution among clusters. Some of the features provided by GMS are

• Managing donors, contacts, key relationships.
• Providing a summary of the funding proposals submitted in the past, present and applying for.
• Track important information on each funding opportunity – such as amount requested, amount awarded, proposal deadline, decision date, grant term, funding program category, and current status and many more.
• Tracks the tasks and deadlines for each application and follow up report. Reminders are sent automatically to remind everyone of their commitments.
• Provides an accessible and secure online system to intuitively organize and quickly retrieve your grant-related documents.
• GMS comes with flexible, prebuilt reports with powerful filters to help Pooled funds get a current, up-to-date overview of the grant efforts and results which can be easily exported in Excel, PDF format.
• Provides tools to evaluate the performance of the participating partners through Partner Capacity Assessments and Due Diligence Processes
• GMS allows tools for proper monitoring and accounting of fund management performance. The system monitors the speed and the quality of different processes, including allocations, disbursement of funds, monitoring, reporting and audits.
• Transparency and Openness in the funding process.
• Quick Decision-Making and Timely Disbursements
• A repository of the various procedures, guidelines, etc. is available to share information that can be used by new and existing pooled funds.