Two likely candidates for Chair of the Global Fund emerged in the course of yesterday. One is Tommy Thompson, head of the US delegation and US Secretary of Health and Human Services. The other is Lennarth Hjelmåker, head of the Swedish delegation, Director of the Department for Global Development at Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Deputy Director General of SIDA. (As reported in Issue 4, Dr. Chrispus Kiyonga, Chair of the Global Fund's Board, announced on Tuesday that he will not stand for re-election.)

Yesterday, the board decided to defer the election to Friday morning. Nominations must be received by 12 noon Geneva time today, Thursday, and will be announced at 2 pm. The election will then take place tomorrow morning at 8:30 am. Even if there is only one candidate for each seat, a resolution will have to be passed by the board to appoint them to office. It is not clear what happens if that resolution is defeated.

Global Fund Observer (GFO) invites each candidate for Chair or Vice Chair to respond to the following interview questions. Responses will be incorporated in Issue 6 of this Newsletter, which will be made available at 6:30 pm today to all delegates attending the board meeting, in time for them to digest those responses during the evening.

The questions are:

1. Between now and the October board meeting, the Fund has to raise new pledges to cover the cost of almost all the Round 3 grants. What must the Fund do, and what would you do if elected Chair or Vice-Chair, to inspire donors to make those pledges?
2. With particular reference to the role of civil society, what is your definition of a well-constructed and well-functioning CCM? What should the Fund do if a CCM clearly does not meet those criteria?
3. If you are elected, what do you feel are the primary factors that will determine whether your term as Chair or Vice-Chair ends up being regarded as a success?
4. Some say that the Fund's board meetings have failed to keep to schedule because there has been too much micro-management by the board, and too much discussion that is governed by underlying, and often unstated, political factors. Do you agree? How would you seek to change things?

As reported in Issue 4, the Fund's Board is made up of two groups of nine seats each. One group consists of seven donor countries plus two private sector organizations, and the other group consists of seven developing countries plus two NGO groups. Any vote must be passed by at least six votes from each of the two groups. Each seat must alternate between the two groups. The bylaws state that in this year's election, whoever is elected Chair must come from the first group (European Commission, France , Italy, Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, McKinsey & Co., Gates Foundation), and the Vice-Chair must come from the second group (Brazil, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, North NGOs, South NGOs). Each person elected holds office for one year, with a possible re-election for a second year.

[Message to candidates: Please email your responses to Bernard Rivers, GFO Editor, rivers@aidspan.org, +41-79-470-1650, by 5:00 pm Thursday, Geneva time. The combined length of the four answers together should not exceed 1,000 words. Answers received will be incorporated, unedited, in Issue 6, which will be sent out immediately to 2,500 GFO subscribers in 125 countries, and made available in printed form to all delegates.]