It’s that time of year again

Author:

idspan Editorial Team

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

But the last Board meeting of the year is likely to be anything but joyful

ABSTRACT This GFO editorial is a special pre-Board issue when we strive to bring you articles on issues that are the most pertinent to Board discussions. Unfortunately, the Board meeting looks to be anything but joyous as members will have to ponder the financial implications of the disappointing replenishment results on the new Strategy’s implementation.

Dear subscribers

We are writing this Editorial in a somewhat depressed state of mind. This is because the Strategy Committee has just met to amend its decision-point recommendations to the Board meeting next week regarding critical aspects of the Strategy’s implementation, including the country allocation ceilings, the Catalytic Investments and the operating expenses budget. This was necessitated by the fact that the Seventh Replenishment outcomes have not been as desirable as anticipated and this means that the Global Fund will have to tighten its fiscal belt.

Hence, our article on the Board meeting (A gloomy start to the run-up to the Board meeting) is not as cheery as we would have liked, It brings you the highlights of the Strategy Committee meeting held on Monday and the proposed Board agenda for next week. And, in support of Catalytic Investments which are under threat, we discuss why maintaining them is essential if we are to meet the goals of the new Strategy (Difficult choices:  What will become of Catalytic Investments ).

But before that, our founder Bernard Rivers has been roused from his retirement slumbers to call the Global Fund to task about four key issues which both he, under his tenure, and more recently, we have written about, Who can fix four fundamental Global Fund problems ?

We go on to being you some African regional news: good news concerning well-functioning grants in Togo (Global Fund grants in Togo: achievements going unnoticed ), but otherwise worrying concerns regarding the biggest threats to service delivery in Mali (Mali teams see political instability and insecurity as major risks ahead ) and an article reporting on an OIG report on the Congo (Global Fund grants in Republic of Congo are off course ) which shows a number of as yet unresolved problems.

Staff member Maryline Mireku reports back on a UNAIDS-Technical Support Mechanism workshop for teams  from 15 countries in East and Southern Africa to prepare them for developing their NFM4 funding request applications for the three funding windows in 2023. And Christian Djoko interviews L’Initiative’s Eric Fleutelot on, among other reflections, how we should be positive about the Seventh Replenishment

As ever, Aidspan and our editorial team, under the leadership of Ida Hakizinka, does its best to ensure the accuracy of data and statements in our published articles ― and hence our inclusion of hyperlinks ― but if you, the reader, identify an error or important omission, please notify us and provide us with your data source; and we shall be happy to publish a correction or amendment.

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Don’t forget: if you are aware of an interesting development relevant to disease programmes or health systems and that you feel is worthy of global discussion, do let me know together with the name of a person prepared to write about this. Suggestions and comments can be sent to us, Ida Hakizinka or Arlette Campbell White in English, French or Spanish at ida.hakizinka@aidspan.org or acampbell.white@aidspan.org.

The Aidspan Editorial Team