A warm welcome to all our readers.

The Global Fund Board will meet in early November and in this issue we provide you with a summary of the Board meeting agenda (

T

he Global Fund’s 46th Board meeting to meet virtually for the fourth time since the onset of COVID-19: Is the time adequate enough for the level of debate required?

). Don’t forget that prior to the Board meeting there will be a special -pre Board issue with a first glance at some of the Board papers, followed by our Board issue itself with a summary of the Board’s discussions and decisions.

Elsewhere in this issue Alan Whiteside and Samuel Muniu follow up their article on an African Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 (

More ideas for the COVID-19 Commission of Inquiry

) supported by our article on the failures of the COVAX vaccine facility which describes the shocking truth of the vaccine situation in Africa and cuntries’ experiences with obtaining vaccines,

The stark reality of the failure of COVAX and its implications for Africa

. There will be three more articles in this series, on the origins of COVID-19, the response to it and the consequences. We also have a country case study on Nigeria’s experience of the COVID-19 Response Mechanism,

Implementers of the COVID-19 Response Mechanism implementers in Nigeria struggle with procurement-related challenges in 2020

.

In other news, we provide you with a first look at the Global Fund’s new Health Financing Department (

Mobilizing scarce resources for health ― the Global Fund rolls up its sleeves

) and some of the resource mobilization advocacy work that it is doing with parliamentarians,

Mobilizing parliamentarians to help garner support for increasing domestic financing of health

.

In other news,

History in the making

as the World Health Organization recommends a vaccine for children at risk of malaria

brings you news about the ground-breaking malaria vaccine recommended by WHO from children under 5, but there is a note of caution regarding its application.

Last but not least, UNAIDS has published its next two-year budget (

UNAIDS Board approves 2022–2023 budget and a five-year results and accountability framework

).

As usual, we ask that if you enjoy the GFO and find it relevant to your work, please encourage your colleagues to subscribe!

Don’t forget: if you are aware of an interesting development relevant to disease programs 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 in English, French or Spanish. You can find me, the GFO’s interim editor, through my email, christelle.boulanger@aidspan.org.

Christelle Boulanger