A new Governance Handbook issued by the Global Fund describes the Fund’s various structures and governance processes. The handbook was conceived primarily as an operations guide for members of the Global Fund Board and their delegations, but it has also been made public. Separate sections of the handbook are devoted to topics such as the history of the Global Fund,…

Three prominent academics have called for a new international health strategy that focuses on the health of people and communities. In an article that appeared on 1 June 2012 in the journal Policy Review, Mark Dybul, Peter Piot and Julio Frenk argue that the current focus on specific diseases has exposed fault lines in delivering services in places where people suffer…

I’ve been working on Global Fund issues since the Fund started ten years ago. A key factor that has kept me going is the stimulus I get from the remarkable people I meet in the course of my work. Recently, however, I received some very sad news about one of those people. Nadia Fuleihan was killed in a car accident…

The debate concerning what proportion of Global Fund money should go to low-income countries (LICs) has been going on for years. Some of the donors to the Global Fund feel very strongly that the bulk of the Fund’s money should go to the poorest countries. They are particularly concerned that as more and more countries increase their gross national income…

The UK is still firmly opposed Civil society organisations (CSOs) are continuing to pile pressure on rich countries to adopt the financial transaction tax (FTT), also called the Robin Hood tax, which they say will raise billions of dollars to address global health issues and help end poverty in developing countries. CSOs are hoping that some of the proceeds of…

Government ordered to provide documents related to procurement of ARVs Earlier this year, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kyrgyzstan succeeded in their legal challenge against the Ministry of Health, which had refused to grant access to copies of tender agreements and other documents related to the procurement and distribution of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs). On 26 January 2012, the Bishkek District…

Increased emphasis on male circumcision, preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, TB case detection Several countries that are beneficiaries of Global Fund money have taken advantage of opportunities to reprogramme existing grants. Reprogramming allows countries to make changes to the scope or scale of a grant in order to improve impact or to reflect changes in epidemiology or country priorities. Reprogramming…

Says $3 million in expenditures should be reimbursed Small amount of misappropriated funds identified Editor’s note: By their very nature, audits tend to focus on what is not working well, and to devote much less space to what is working satisfactorily. This summary of the OIG audit in Kenya reflects that “bias.” At the end of April 2012, the Office…