It’s that time of year again! Global Fund Board members will assemble for the Board’s 48^th meeting to be held between 15 and 17 November. So, between 10 and 14 October the Secretariat will host the 20th series of Committee meetings in preparation for that Board meeting, bringing Committee members together to discuss and recommend, as needed, decisions to be endorsed by the Board. The Strategy Committee (SC) will meet between 10 to 12 October and the Ethics & Governance Committee (EGC) on 10/11 October, followed by the Audit & Finance Committee (AFC) on 13/14 October.

Strategy Committee topics

Virtual, pre-meeting items

The meetings were launched online on 4 October this week with Pre-Calls on two recommendation items: (i) a discussion on the 

Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework

 (including 

Key Performance Indicators

 (KPIs) and the 

Multi-year Evaluation Calendar

); and (ii) 

NextGen Market Shaping

: Non-Global Fund financed procurement through wambo.org. This was followed by a Pre-Call on two items to go to the Board for a decision: (i) the 

annual budget and work plan for the Evaluation Structure

; and (ii) the 

annual budget and work plan for the Technical Review Panel

(TRP). Both budgets will be included in Operating Expenses (OpEx) through the AFC.

At some stage there will have been a joint SC/AFC Pre-call: an 

Update on the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) Implementation

 although at the time of writing it was not known when (if) this meeting had taken place. It is of particular interest given the apparent poor performance of the C19RM grants with low drawdowns and expenditure rates; but as usual, there is a story behind this and it is not as simple as it seems We’ll bring you an article on this specific topic in the next GFO.

In-person meeting agenda items

Below is a snapshot of the meeting’s main topics to be discussed:

For recommendation: There are two items for recommendation, the aforementioned 

M&E Framework

 and the 

NextGen Market Shaping

.

For decision: The two decision items are the two budgets for the new 

Evaluation Structure

 and the 

TRP

.

For input: There are several interesting items for discussion by SC members.

As the Global Fund’s current evaluation mechanism, the Technical Reference Evaluation Group (TERG) prepares to close its doors before the new structure is launched, the SC will discuss TERG matters: in particular, its two 

Final Evaluations

, one on 

Challenging Operating Environments (COEs)

and the other on 

Accelerating Equitable Deployment and Access to Innovation

. Article 3 in this special pre-Committee issue of the GFO is an in-depth look into the COE evaluation recommendations and the Secretariat’s response (The Global Fund Challenging Operating Environment Policy could do much better: but is the Secretariat taking the easy way out ?).

Still on TERG, there will be an update on “continuing TERG workstreams” which presumably will be completed under the new evaluation structure: an 

Evaluation of Data Driven Decision Making

, one on 

Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) Mapping

 and, of especial note, the 

Country-steered Review of the Global Fund

. This should make for some interesting reading and we’ll try to provide more information on it once the report has been published.

As well as some time devoted to the aforementioned item requiring financial decision-making (annual budget and work plan for the Evaluation Structure), there will be discussion on the 

Strategic Performance Report 2017-2022

, preparations for

Board Thematic Discussions (on Gender and Communities)

 and an 

Update on Pandemic Preparedness Objective and Establishment of the PPR Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF)

at the World Bank. We have already brought you two articles on the FIF in June (The Financial Intermediary Fund: A New Model That Duplicates the Global Fund) and in our last issue in September, GFO 419, Who Is the New Kid on the Block in the Global Health Ecology? So we await this update, which is probably a report on the Board meeting held early in September, with interest.

For information: In addition to the aforementioned topics, the SC will review the Update on allocations and operationalization of 

Catalytic Investments 2023- 2025

, the 

Recruitment of TRP Members

, 

Country Funding, Portfolio Optimization and update on Strategic Initiatives

 (current cycle) and the 

Bi-annual report on wambo.org

non grant financed pilot. Our next pre-Board issue of the GFO will bring you more in-depth articles on Catalytic Investments, and Country Funding, Portfolio Optimization and Strategic Initiatives.

Audit & Finance Committee topics

Pre-Calls

A Pre-Call Executive Session meeting will be held jointly with the 

EGC.

However, before that on 1, 2 and 27 September, Optional Virtual Onboarding sessions were held on: 

Treasury and Forex Management

 and 

Grant Financial Management

: 

Accounting and Financial Statements

, 

Corporate Planning and Forecasting

, and 

AFC dashboards

; and the 

Onboarding of the Local Fund Agents (LFAs) role/model

.

In-person meeting agenda items

The AFC agenda is a tightly packed one.

For recommendation: Members will consider: (i) the 

2023 OpEx budget

 (including the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) budget)/Strategy costing with three-year cap and corporate work plan); (ii)  the 

2023-2025 Allocation Period: Sources of Funds

; and (iii) the 

definition of financial management KPIs and targets

. We hope to bring you a separate article on item (ii) in our next pre-Board GFO.

For decision: Members will have to reach a conclusion on: (i) the 

approval of available sources of funds for portfolio optimization

and financing unfunded quality demand for the 2020-2022 allocation period

; (ii) the 

approval of available sources of funds for C19RM

; (iii) 

approval of available sources of funds for portfolio optimization and financing unfunded demand for the C19RM

; (iv) the 

2023 OIG work plan, KPIs and budget

; and (v) the establishment of the interestingly named 

Remuneration Group

. Our pre-Board meeting GFO will carry an article on portfolio optimization and also on catalytic investments.

For input: Members will provide their thoughts on the 

Semi-annual Risk Management Report

, with inputs by the SC/EGC on risks related to their respective mandates for the holistic Global Fund risk profile. The Secretariat will provide an 

Update on the OIG Operational Progress Report

 and there will be discussions on the 

Strategic Performance Report 2017-2022

 and on 

Human Resources

 matters – 

People and Organizational Strategy 2023-2028

and Future of Work

.

For information: There is a lot of background reading for AFC members covering a multitude of topics; an update on the 

M&E Framework

 based on the SC’s recommendation to the Board from earlier in the week; a general update on 

Resource Mobilization and Seventh Replenishment

; updates on 

LFAs

 and 

Agreed Management Actions

 (AMAs); the 

OIG Risk Assessment

 and an 

overview of Financial Performance

, the 

Recoveries Report

 (Written Input) and, finally, the 

IT Strategy 2023-2025

.

Ethics & Governance Committee topics

Pre-Calls

On 13 September EFC members were briefed on the 

Board Leadership Nomination Committee (BLNC)

and other relevant matters ahead of the EGC 20^th Meeting.

In-person meeting agenda items

For recommendation: The RFC will make a recommendation to the Board concerning the 

Honorarium Framework

.

For decision: The Committee will have to take a decision on (i) the 

overall funding ceiling for constituency funding

(in an Executive session) and (ii) the 

Ethics Function 2023

work plan and budget

.

For input: The AFC will consider the 

Semi-Annual Risk Management Report

, the 

Culture of Trust, Collaboration and Accountability

, the 

Sanctions Panel Annual Report

 and an update on 

Privileges & Immunities

.

For information: Other issues to be discussed include: an 

update on the BLNC

; the 

EGC work plan

; a 

progress update on GAP 2.0

; the 

Constituency Funding Annual Report

; lessons learned from recruiting the 

Ethics Officer

; and an 

Ethics Progress update

.

Once again we end this article on the Committees’ agendas by asking why there is such mystery surrounding the Committees’ meetings, why the related documents cannot be published on the Global Fund website for all to see, and why observers to the meetings’ proceedings are so few. We ask - but we never receive a reply!