By: David Garmaise

In a post on the Global Fund website on 28 September 2018, Board Leadership welcomed the advisory review on governance conducted by the Office of the Inspector General and described some of the measures that have been taken since the Governance Action Plan was developed in response to the review. 

By: Charlie Baran and Adèle Sulcas

The Government of Rwanda and the Global Fund took the lead, in 2014, on an innovative approach to health financing with the aim to improve the efficiency of Rwanda’s fight against HIV. The ‘National Strategy Financing’ approach has proved to enhance grant effectiveness, deliver results, and offer “good value for money,” according to independent evaluators Euro Health Group. This success paves the way for other countries to adopt the model in additional pilots, if they meet the criteria. 

By: David Garmaise

In August and October 2018, the Global Fund Board approved two HIV grants and three TB grants worth $28.1 million. The Board also approved matching funds requests for six components valued at $15.9 million. This article provides some details of the approved funding.

By: Adèle Sulcas

As Christoph Benn leaves the Global Fund, after 15 years of service as the head of External Relations, he reflects – in a conversation with Aidspan – on the history of the Global Fund’s resource mobilization function, the successes achieved and challenges faced, and on the establishment of the Global Fund Replenishment.

By: Ida Hakizinka

The annual consultative meeting of the Global Fund’s African Constituencies took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October, to discuss a range of issues that may be raised at the Global Fund’s 40th Board Meeting next week, including the pervasive and longstanding problem of implementers’ absorptive capacity. Representatives at the Addis Ababa meeting included all country constituencies, as well as representation from the Global Fund Board, the Secretariat and UNAIDS. 

By: David Garmaise

The Global Fund Board has provided funding for some interventions from the Unfunded Quality Demand Register. The funding has been added to an existing malaria grant in Burundi and an existing TB grant in Philippines. This is the first set of interventions from a portfolio optimization exercise conducted by the Secretariat for the 2017–2019 allocation cycle. The additional resources come from funding designated by the Audit and Finance Committee as being available for portfolio optimization. 

By: Jesse B. Bump

Aidspan Board member Dr. Jesse Boardman Bump reflects on allocation processes for funding and other resources, on the eve of the Global Fund’s 40th Board meeting, to be held in Geneva on 14–15 November 2018. Allocations is one of the topics expected to be discussed at the meeting, before the Global Fund institutes changes to its allocations policy in 2019. 

By: Friends of the Global Fight

This is the second in a series of short interviews by Friends of the Global Fight with the Global Fund’s Senior Disease Coordinators. In this Q&A, Friends spoke with Dr. Wandwalo, the Senior Disease Coordinator specializing in tuberculosis, about the opportunities to fight TB covered in Friends’ report, “At the Tipping Point: U.S. Leadership to End AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria”.

By: Friends of the Global Fight

On October 11, 2018, a bipartisan group of 18 U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Administration to increase the United States’ pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 2020-2022. The U.S. pledged $4.3 billion for the last three-year funding cycle in 2016.

This is issue 345 of the GLOBAL FUND OBSERVER (GFO) Newsletter. Please send all suggestions for news items, commentaries or any other feedback to the GFO Acting Editor at adele.sulcas@aidspan.org. To subscribe to GFO, go to www.aidspan.org.

GFO Newsletter is a free and independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (www.theglobalfund.org).

Aidspan (www.aidspan.org) 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.

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GFO Acting Editor: Adèle Sulcas (adele.sulcas@aidspan.org). Aidspan Executive Director: Ida Hakizinka (ida.hakizinka@aidspan.org).

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