Global Fund Replenishment, ASP, Lusaka Agenda, TB, L’Initiative
Author:
Aidspan
Article Type:Article Number: 1
Replenishment of the Global Fund is upcoming. Even as the Additional Safeguards Policy came under scrutiny from the Office of the Inspector General, and increasing concerns that key populations like LGBTQI are being ignored in the consultations about the Lusaka Agenda. As the WHO attains a whopping S1 billion in pledges and re-affirmations, will the Global Fund be able to get more to fight the three diseases even as TB returns to be a global threat?
The World Health Summit just concluded in Berlin. All eyes were on its central event, the WHO Investment Round and it delivered $1B in terms of pledges made or re-affirmed, making it the largest donor event so far for the WHO. So, what’s next? We cover the upcoming Global Fund Replenishment, in a two–part series by Julia Bürgi where we collate responses from some of the Global Fund constituencies such as WCA/ESA, DCNGO, UNAIDS as well as GFAN and the Global Fund Secretariat as well as constituency feedback from recent Global Fund Board and Committee meetings and research to provide a compelling picture of lessons learned, challenges and concerns in the run-up to the 8th Replenishment round. And since we are into the Global Fund Replenishment we delve into the Global Fund report on Grant Cycle 7 and country funding as a companion piece to the above.
Even as we cover country funding, we also look at the Advisory Report put out by the Office of the Inspector General after its review of the Global Fund’s Additional Safeguard Policy (ASP), which basically puts up guard rails to ensure that funds get utilized where they’re meant to and there is no leakage.
But the African countries, who must labour under the yoke of ASP often find themselves at odds with this arrangement as there is little clarity on the steps to end it as the OIG pointed out, among other concerns. It is worrisome that this request for this review was made by the African constituencies to the Secretariat, which then led to the Global Fund’s request to the OIG to conduct the study. It’s worrisome because issues regarding the ASP have been festering for quite a while. Yet, it took so long to get the Secretariat to let the policy be examined given that some countries have had the ASP for nearly a decade! Moreover, though it hearteningly points to the sustained advocacy by the African constituencies (courtesy the African Constituency Bureau), it also makes one wonder at what exactly the Audit and Finance Committee, the Strategy Committee and the Ethics and Governance Committee examine? Since as the OIG Advisory Report points out there are financial implications and that it weakens the countries’ capacity building. Further, why is it that the Global Fund and OIG are coy and label it as a “review” and “advisory” when otherwise an audit would require a timeline for agreed management actions. Not that management actions get necessarily done, either, as OIG reports on these AMAs as they’re known showcase that some are often pending and others because of lapsed time are found no longer necessary. So, what exactly is the advisory going to lead to is anybody’s guess!
We conclude with articles translated by Amida Kariburyo, with contribution from George Njenga Kiai for the graphics, from our French counterpart Observateur du Fonds Mondial (OFM). These include, “Where are the key and vulnerable populations in the Lusaka Agenda?” written by Jean Paul Enama, “Rendezvous of the OFM-L’Initiative” webinar and “A person dying of tuberculosis is murdered” by Christian Djoko and Ekelru Jessica. All these impinge on issues vis-à-vis Global Fund. The absence of the LGBTI key population, for instance, in confabulations, about the Lusaka Agenda, though the Global Fund has come out better than others in being inclusive with a formal country coordinating mechanism that brings together government, civil society and key populations together. Then there is the issue of whether enough resources are available to end tuberculosis, which post-Covid returns to being world’s leading cause of infectious mortality. The webinar showcased L’Initiative’s work in ending pandemics and its work with the Global Fund to eradicate the three diseases of HIV, TB and malaria.
So, that’s all for now. Hope to bring more news of the Global Fund in our upcoming issue.
And any thoughts about which aspect in the global health initiative sector you’d like to see covered in our newsletter are always welcome and we’d really appreciate suggestions on who can pen an article on it! Anyone who wishes to voluntarily contribute as a guest columnist and provide an incisive analysis or first-person account of what is happening at micro – or macro – levels in the field of global health interventions is also welcome. Any feedback and suggestions in French, Spanish, English can be sent to Ida Hakizinka ida.hakizinka@aidspan.org and/or in English to madhuri@aidspan.org
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