Global Fund Board Meets Next Week

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

ABSTRACT At its board meeting next week, the Fund will approve Round 4 grants, decide on voting rights for the "Communities" delegation, review whether to toughen up its requirements regarding CCM structure and operations, and consider the question of "in kind" donations to the Fund.

The Global Fund will hold one of its three yearly board meetings next week in Geneva from June 28-30.

Some significant items to be discussed include the following:

• The board will decide which Round 4 proposals to approve from the 175 or so that the Technical Review Panel (TRP) considered. In Rounds 2 and 3, the board approved exactly those proposals that were recommended by the TRP. Given that sufficient funding appears to be available, it appears likely that the board will act in the same way for Round 4. (As soon as the results are known and can be made public – which will be on June 30 or possibly the day before – GFO will put out a special issue with information on the decisions regarding all the proposals.)

• The board will discuss whether to grant a vote to the board member who represents the communities living with HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. At present, eighteen board members have a vote and five board members (including “Communities”) are able to participate fully in the discussion but do not have a vote. The other non-voting members are UNAIDS, WHO, the World Bank, and a representative of Switzerland.

• The board will decide whether its past rather limited “requirements” and “recommendations” regarding CCM structure and operations will be made stronger.

• The board will discuss whether, and on what basis, to permit “in kind donations” to the Fund.