GNP+ DESCRIBES “THE QUALITIES WE WILL LOOK FOR” IN THE NEXT E.D.
Author:
David Garmaise
Article Type:Article Number: 8
ABSTRACT In a commentary, the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) has described three qualities that the next executive director of the Global Fund should exemplify.
In a commentary posted on its website, the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) has identified three qualities that the next executive director of the Global Fund should exemplify. They are as follows:
- “The next Global Fund executive director should demonstrate an unshakeable commitment to human rights and key population issues.” This includes translating “all the nice slogans” and human rights principles into daily operations, GNP+ said. It also includes advocating with donors and partners to ensure that human rights are promoted and protected.
- “The Global Fund needs to maintain its global relevance through improving its ability to go where the issues are and where communities need [the Fund] to be.” GNP+ said that a shrinking funding pool, coupled with the continued insistence on the part of donors for reduced investments in middle-income countries – and the Global Fund’s continued deference to these funders – make it difficult to address the health issues of 70% of people living with HIV, all of whom reside in middle-income countries.
- The Global Fund needs a leader who will “make sure that available resources are focused to benefit and reach those who are directly affected by the three diseases.” The Global Fund’s risk management approach often only focuses on one dimension – financial risk – GNP+ said. “But this approach neglects the risks associated with poor program quality and the failure of some programs to benefit people’s health, which puts the Global Fund at risk of not achieving its primary mission, it added.
“The Global Fund’s next leaders should focus on how to make sure that risk management focuses on the risks for the Fund’s primary beneficiaries and work upwards from there, instead of the current top-down approach to risk management,” GNP+ said.
The Global Fund Board had been expected to select a new E.D. at the Board Retreat on 27 February 2017, but decided instead to launch a new search (see GFO article). There has been no announcement as yet concerning what process will be followed for the new search. The term of the current E.D., Dr Mark Dybul ends on 31 May. The Board has appointed Marijke Winjroks as Interim E.D. starting on 1 June (see GFO article). See also an analysis by Aidspan of what went wrong with the recent E.D. selection process.
