Global Fund Is Seeking Input for Its New Five-Year Strategic Plan

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

ABSTRACT Persons interested in providing input into the Global Fund's strategic planning process can do so online by filling out a survey or taking part in an eForum discussion group.

The Global Fund is using its Partnership Forum to obtain input from people for its five-year strategic plan, which will cover the period through to 2016. The Forum, which the Fund organises once every two years, is already underway online, and will run for about three months, ending with a large Forum meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 28-30 June.

Persons interested in providing input into the strategic plan can do so in three ways:

1. by filling out an online survey;

2. by participating in a newly established eForum discussion group; and

3. by attending the Partnership Forum meeting.

Note, however, that the Partnership Forum meeting is an invitation-only event.

The Global Fund has established a consultation page at AIDSPortal, a website for HIV and health-related information. Visitors to the site can provide input into the strategic plan via an online survey. The survey will run until 30 April.

People wishing to provide input can also participate in an eForum discussion group in English, French, Spanish and Russian. The eForum is time-limited; it is scheduled to run for six weeks, from mid-April to end-May. The discussion will cover three topics, each one led by a guiding question, and each one lasting two weeks. People interested in participating in the eForum can sign up on the consultation page; those wishing to participate in the English-language eForum can also send an email to join-globalfundconsult@eforums.healthdev.org.

The first topic for the eForum has already been set: “Increasing the number of lives saved, impact and value for money.” The guiding question for the discussion of this topic is: “Thinking about what it funds and the way funding is currently provided, what should the Global Fund do more of – or less of – in order to maximize value for money and increase the number of lives saved and infections prevented?” The other two topics have not yet been announced.

An initial “high-level” draft of the strategic plan was discussed at a meeting of the Global Fund Board’s Policy and Strategy Committee in March 2011. The draft will be reviewed by the board at its meeting on 11-12 May 2011. Following the board meeting, the Global Fund Secretariat will coordinate the development of a detailed strategic plan, incorporating feedback from the consultations described above. There may be additional consultations after the Partnership Forum meeting. The strategy will be finalised by the board at its end-2011 meeting.