Following the committee meetings that took place in mid-October and reported on earlier in GFO 438 (

Global Fund Committees are meeting this week

), the Board has shared the draft agenda for its upcoming meeting next week in Geneva. This article summarizes the Board meeting agenda topics.

Proposed agenda for the 50th Board meeting



Pre-Board

meetings will be held as follows:

• 
  29 September
  :
  Informal Board Call
  on
  Malaria
  (see Article 5 in this issue of GFO,
  
  Redefining strategies to address the multifaceted battle against malaria
  
  ).
• 
  18 October
  :
  
  Board and Committee Member Training Session
  
  
  : Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment.
  
• 
  20 October
  :
  
  Informal Board Call
  
  –
  Briefing on the Future of Global Health Initiatives:
  see our article in GFO 439,
  
  Reimagining the future of GHIs
  
  
  
  .
  
  
• Early
  Novembe
  r:
  
  Pre-Board briefing calls
  -
  on various topics, as yet unconfirmed,

Prior to the meeting itself, an electronic decision will be taken on the
Privileges and Immunities Advisory Group Terms of Reference
. Constituency Meetings and pre-Board sessions will be held on
Sunday 12
and
Monday 13 November
.
Also on Monday, following Consitutency meetings, an in-person discussion will be held on

Updates from the Technical Review Panel (TRP)


,
based on a
TRP report
. The meeting will then discuss

Governance and Committee Matters

, covering: (i) a briefing on priority discussions at the 23rd Committee Meetings; and (ii) an overview of upcoming priorities at each Committee, including a focus on priority governance processes and initiatives, based on the
Report of the Coordinating Group
and
Background Materials (Board and Committee Work Plans)
. The final session of the day will discuss an

Update on Evaluation Matters

based on the Board paper
Evaluation Matters
. That evening a welcome reception will take place at the Global Health Campus.
The Board meeting itself starts on
Tuesday 14 November
. Following Opening Remarks and Moment of Reflection (lighting of the candle) and Introductory remarks from Committee Chairs the agenda and rapporteur will be approved and
Segment 1: Setting the Scene
will be introduced by Peter Sands who will provide the

Report of the Executive Director


.
This will be followed by
Segment 2: Global Fund Strategy: Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7
(GC7). The topic of

Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7 – Strategy: Primary Goal - HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria

will encompass discussions on:

• 
  HIV:
  Discussion on progress and observations from grant-making (including Catalytic Investment (CI) funds), and key risks including in relation to human rights.
• 
  TB:
  Discussion on progress, observations from grant-making (including CI funds), reflections from the UN High Level Meeting (HLM) (we reported on this in GFO 437 and you can read the two articles
  
  here
  
  and
  
  here
  
  ), and key risks.
• 
  Malaria
  : Discussion on progress and observations from grant- making; key risks; and a preview of the risk appetite decision on malaria program risk (and read this issue's article 5 on malaria,
  
  Redefining strategies to address the multifaceted battle against malaria.
  
• The session will draw on information from strategic performance reporting, TRP observations, country funding/CI updates, and risk reporting, all covered in the Committee meetings in October.

Reference documents include
Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7
,
Strategic Performance Report (mid-2023)
which we covered in the last GFO and you can read about it

here


,
the
Report of the Technical Review Panel
  (see  article 3 in this GFO, G
lobal Fund Technical Review Panel observations on funding requests from Windows 1, 2 and 3
which gives you a brief analysiss prior to the Board meeting), and the
Risk Management Report
, an important paper which is a key reference for many of the forthcoming Board sessions.
The second part of this segment,

Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7 – Strategy: Mutually reinforcing contributory and evolving objectives

, will be held that afternoon. It will cover issues such as:

• 
  
  Community, Rights and Gender
  
  : discussion on key themes arising from the Annual Report on CRG (noting human rights linkages to the HIV session above) covered in GFO 439 in our article
  
  Community Rights and Gender Annual Report
  
  .
• 
  
  Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health, Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and the Covid-19 Response Mechanism
  
  . Discussion on progress and observations from grant-making and CI preparations; key risks, linkages to C19RM, and an update on engagement with the Pandemic Fund (covered in GFO 439).
• 
  
  Health Financing.
  
  
• Implementation of
  
  NextGen Market Shaping
  
  and an update on wambo.

Background documents for this session, which you can find online after the Board meeting, are
Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7
,
Strategic Performance Report (mid-2023)
,
Report of the Technical Review Panel
, the
Risk Management Report
, the
Annual Report on Community, Rights and Gender
and the
C19RM Monthly Update (Oct 2023).

The day ends with the final session in this Segment
,
Looking ahead to Grant Cycle 7 – Future oriented closing discussion

.
On
Wednesday 15 November
, the day starts with
Segment 3: Risk Oversight and Assurance
.
The

OIG Mid-2023 Progress Report

will be discussed For Information based on reference documents
OIG Progress Report (Mid-2023)
and the
Agreed Management Actions Progress Report.
The next session covers

Risk Management and Risk Appetite Statements
:
the Risk Management Report

(For Information) including an update on approach to risk management at enterprise level; and an

Amendment to the Risk Appetite Statements (Malaria Program Risk)

which is
For Decision
and based on the following reference documents: the
Risk Management Report
and the Amendment to the
Risk Appetite Statements
.
Before the lunch break the Board will discuss the

Updated Global Fund Approach to Blended Financing

which is
For Decision
, based on the paper of the same title.
This is followed by two lunches – an 'ordinary' Lunch and an interestingly named Francophone Lunch (hopefully the difference will be explained!) as well as who is invited to which lunch and why! And they’ll have to be careful not to eat too much as the afternoon sessions will require some concentration as it is all about continuing with decision-making. Launching
Segment 4: Financial Oversight
, and still on items
For Decision
, the post-lunch session covers the

2024 Corporate Work Plan and Operating Expenses Budget

, based on the paper of the same name. This is followed by the remaining
For Decision
item on
Supply Operations
. The Board will discuss an

Update to Quality Assurance Policies

based on two documents, the
Revisions to Quality Assurance Policies
and the
Risk Management Report
. Readers who want to know more about this should read our article in GFO 439
, Global Fund Strategy Committee recommends Quality Assurance Policy Updates to the Board
which provides a good summary of the importance of the proposed changes to the two policies and their combination into one sole policy.
The day’s final session, For Information, is on

Co-Financing

when the Secretariat will update the Board on the strategic objectives of co-financing approaches; experiences of implementation in Grant Cycles 5 and 6 (data governance, incentives, policy visibility, policy implementation and roles and responsibilities, available data); improvements introduced for GC7 and emerging data. The background paper,
an Update on Co-Financing
, will be reviewed in next week's Board issue of the GFO.
The final day of the Board meeting,
Thursday 16 November
, starts with
Segment 5: Strategy Oversight Matters
and a For Information session on

Climate and Health


.
Delegates will discuss a summary of the climate crisis, the human health impact of climate change and its impact on the Global Fund mission; and an update on Global Fund actions and the way forward. There will also be linkages to the Malaria discussion on Day 1 of the Board meeting. The two reference documents are
Climate and Health
and the
Risk Management Report
. For more details, see our article in GFO 439

Global Fund’s Strategy Committee discusses the detrimental effects of the climate crisis on the fight against disease

.
This will be followed by a session on

Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs


)
. For more on this, see our article in GFO 438 on the

OIG audit of Country Coordinating Mechanisms

, which covers many of the topics to be discussed at the Board. Delegates will listen to: an update on how CCMs are supporting the Strategy’s implementation; progress on the CCM Evolution Strategic Initiative (SI) and approach to continuing the Evolution process beyond the end of the SI at the end of 2023; Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit outcomes and how these are being addressed; readout from the informal CCM Working Group and the next steps. Discussion will be based on two reports,
Country Coordinating Mechanisms
 and the aforementioned
Risk Management Report.

The final session is
Segment 6: Resource Mobilization and Partnerships
. An

Update on Resource Mobilization

for the purposes of information will cover lessons from the Seventh Replenishment campaign and, finally, an update on the ongoing resource mobilization strategy based on the background document
Update on Resource Mobilization
.
The

Closing Session of the Board Meeting

will be held before lunch and will focus on Governance priorities and Acknowledgements.
 

The GFO will provide a full report on the Global Fund Board Meeting in its post-Board special edition, which will be published after the Board meeting concludes on 16 November 2023.