GLOBAL FUND URGED TO RE-AFFIRM COMMITMENT TO AID EFFECTIVENESS AND HSS

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Download PDF The Global Fund must do more to re-affirm its commitment to the principles of aid effectiveness (AE) and health systems strengthening (HSS), a new report published by Aidspan says. The report, which is authored by Dr David McCoy, Aidspan’s research director, and three other researchers, says that too much of the current debate about the Global Fund’s future treats…

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ABSTRACT A report authored by Dr David McCoy, Aidspan's research director, and three other researchers says that the Global Fund must do more to re-affirm its commitment to the principles of aid effectiveness and health systems strengthening.

The Global Fund must do more to re-affirm its commitment to the principles of aid effectiveness (AE) and health systems strengthening (HSS), a new report published by Aidspan says.

The report, which is authored by Dr David McCoy, Aidspan’s research director, and three other researchers, says that too much of the current debate about the Global Fund’s future treats the Fund as an autonomous organisation. In truth, they argue, the Global Fund is a messy partnership of multiple organisations and stakeholders with different agendas and priorities.

The report traces the gradual journey that the Global Fund has made from its start as a selective, vertical and disease-based funding agency to an organisation that is more aware of the need to contribute to the AE and HSS agendas. The authors note that the short timeframe, a complex and changing global health landscape, and insufficient arrangements for mutual accountability with other development partners have limited the Fund’s AE and HSS efforts.

However, according to the researchers, three themes that are currently influencing the Global Fund’s transformation agenda – (1) financial austerity, (2) stronger performance-based funding and (3) fiduciary risk and financial management – are shifting the organisation back towards becoming more top-down and concerned with the delivery of selective services, and more concerned with being able to attribute results to itself. As such, they leave the Global Fund’s AE and HSS initiatives hanging in the balance.

The authors argue further that “many of the problems facing the Global Fund should push it more towards finding systemic solutions rather than Fund-specific solutions.”

The apparent shift away from AE and HSS needs to be debated, the report says. This requires examining not just the Global Fund’s policies, plans and preferences, but also those of other actors who form the broader global health sector.

The authors of the report argue that the Global Fund must affirm the importance of AE and HSS in its transformation agenda; and clarify its future plans for participating in the Health Systems Funding Platform (HSFP) and the International Health Partnership (IHP). The authors also call for greater attention to be paid to the Global Fund’s roles and functions in relation to other actors and for the development of appropriate and more effective means of monitoring and evaluating the health systems effects of the Global Fund.

“The Global Fund: What Next for Aid Effectiveness and Health Systems Strengthening,” was written by David McCoy, Carlos Bruen, Peter Hill and Dominique Kerouedan. A full copy of the report is available here.