Main Decisions Made at Global Fund Board Meeting

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 3

ABSTRACT Other decisions made at last week's board meeting included agreeing procedures for recruiting a new Executive Director, modifying the Comprehensive Funding Policy, and agreeing a policy to protect whistle-blowers.

Key decisions made by the Global Fund Board at the meeting that ended on Friday were as follows.

1. 1. New Executive Director: In light of the recent announcement by Dr. Richard Feachem, the Fund’s Executive Director, that he will not apply to have his contract renewed, the Board agreed on procedures for choosing a new Executive Director, as follows:
      • An Executive Director Nomination Committee will be set up. Its members will be the Fund’s Chair and Vice-Chair (from Barbados and the European Commission, respectively), three additional board members representing the donor group (from Denmark, UK, and USA) and three additional board members representing the recipient group (from Cameroon, China, and Developed Country NGOs).
      • The Nomination Committee will follow a board-approved action plan and board-approved selection criteria to come up with five candidates to present to the board, which will then choose one of these for the job.

The new Executive Director will be selected based on merit, in a non-political, open and competitive manner.

1. • It is hoped that the new Executive Director will take office by January 2007. But in case that does not prove possible, Dr. Feachem’s current contract has been extended to the end of March 2007. Dr. Feachem will leave his job once the Chair and Vice Chair agree that his successor is ready to take over the job. (This allows for the possibility of an overlap.)
   • The new Executive Director will serve for an initial term of four years, renewable for not more than one additional term of three years. He/she will be required to work according to new board-approved Terms of Reference, and will be assessed according to new board-approved Key Performance Indicators.
2. Current Executive Director: The Board will set up a Performance Assessment Committee to assess the current Executive Director’s performance in 2005 and 2006.
3. Secretariat investigation: The Board concluded that the Secretariat leadership has acted proactively and seriously to deal with the issues that were identified in the recent investigation of the Secretariat by the WHO Office of Internal Oversight Services.
4. Inspector General: The Board increased the 2006 budget for the Fund’s new Office of the Inspector General from $0.8 million to $2.0 million.
5. Comprehensive Funding Policy: The Board modified the Fund’s Comprehensive Funding Policy to state that grants can be approved up to the amount of money that is expected to be available at the time that grant agreements will be signed, rather than just the amount of money that is expected to be available at the end of the year in which the grants are approved. (This has a particular impact when grant approvals take place near the end of the year, as will be the case with Round 6.)
6. Resource mobilization: The Board adopted a Resource Mobilization Framework as developed by the Finance and Audit Committee.
7. Procurement: The Board agreed in principle that the Fund should “facilitate the provision of voluntary pooled procurement for recipients of grants”.
8. Strategy: The Board approved progress thus far on a major strategy-development exercise that is being conducted by the Board’s Policy and Strategy Committee.
9. Technical Review Panel (TRP): The Board agreed that:
   • The “TRP clarification” and “LFA assessment” exercises that in the past have taken place after the board approves a proposal will now commence as soon as the TRP has recommended a proposal for approval. This will slightly reduce the lengthy period between a proposal being submitted to the Fund and the grant agreement being signed.
   • A TRP member may serve as TRP Chair for no more than two rounds; but if he/she does serve as Chair, he/she may serve in the TRP for up to six rounds rather than the normal maximum of four rounds.
   • Dr. Blaise Genton will become a member of the TRP, and a number of other people will serve as TRP alternate members and TRP support group members.
10. Continuity of Services: The Board agreed that the Continuity of Services policy (which ensures that financial support from the Fund will not always stop as soon as a grant is terminated) will apply not just to lifelong treatments (as for ARVs), but also to limited-duration treatments (as for TB).
11. Round 5 appeals: The Board approved funding of four Round 5 appeals that had earlier been approved in principle but for which there was not at that time sufficient funding.
12. Upper middle income countries: The Board very slightly extended the range of “upper middle income” countries that are eligible to apply to the Fund (by including a few cases where the country counts as a small island economy), but did not go as far as some Board members wanted.
13. Whistle-blowing policy: The Board approved a policy to protect “whistle-blowers”, both within the Secretariat and within recipient countries.
14. Lobbying: The Board approved a code of conduct intended to prevent inappropriate lobbying of board members and others who are involving in grant-making decisions.
15. Round 6: See separate article, above.
16. Nigeria: See separate article, above
17. The precise wording of the Board decisions is available at www.theglobalfund.org/en/about/board/thirteenth. Extensive background documentation will also soon be available at this location.