NEWS FOR AND ABOUT THE GLOBAL FUND PARTNERSHIP

Author:

Adèle Sulcas

Article Type:

Article Number: 5

ABSTRACT This edition’s ‘Of Interest’ focuses on value-for-money resources for applicants to the Global Fund, the Global Fund and Friends of the Global Fund/Japan’s participation in the torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics, and the plenary lineup for AIDS 2020, announced by the International AIDS Society.

GLOBAL FUND PUBLISHES ‘VALUE FOR MONEY’ TECHNICAL BRIEF

The Global Fund website’s 21 February news update, ‘Value for Money Resources for Applicants’, describes how value for money – maximizing and sustaining equitable and quality health outputs, outcomes and impact for a given level of resources – is key to Global Fund investments. The update says that while the concept has long been an integral part of the Global Fund’s operations, “from the 2020-2022 funding cycle onward applicants are encouraged to consider it from funding request development through grant closure”.

To this end, the Fund has published a technical brief designed to help applicants focus on key value-for-money elements in their grant applications. The brief was developed in close consultation with the Technical Review Panel and the Fund’s development partners, and spells out “key elements of value for money for applicants to consider when developing funding requests”. It is also intended to support implementing partners as they develop disease-specific and health-sector national strategic plans.

The technical brief is available on the Fund’s website in English, French, and Spanish.

See the Global Fund’s update on ‘Value for Money Resources for Applicants)…

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GLOBAL FUND/FRIENDS JAPAN IN TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

The Global Fund’s Executive Director, Peter Sands – along with other global health advocates and leaders making up a Global Fund team – has been selected as a torchbearer for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay. The team “will carry the torch for everyone involved in the fight to end epidemics” in Okinawa, the site of the 2000 G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, where Japan introduced infectious diseases to the meeting’s agenda. This began the process for the establishment of the Global Fund in 2002, strongly supported by Japan, which has remained the Global Fund’s fifth-largest contributor.

Most of the nine delegates who make up the torch team are affected by HIV, TB or malaria. In addition to Peter Sands, they are: Maureen Murenga (Lean on Me Foundation, from Kenya), Jeffrey Acaba (APCASO, from Philippines), Erika Castellanos (Global Action for Trans*Equality, from Belize), Noriyuki Ishiyama (Japan Center for International Exchange/Friends of the Global Fund, from Japan), JOY (Stop TB Volunteer Ambassador, from Japan), Zolelwa Sifumba (St Andrews Hospital, from South Africa), Morimitsu Touma (Yaeyama War Malaria Bereaved Family Association, from Japan), Saw Winn Tun (Malaria Community Worker, from Myanmar).

See the Global Fund’s full news release on the Tokyo Olympics torch relay…

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IAS ANNOUNCES ‘AIDS 2020’ CONFERENCE PLENARY LINE-UP

The International AIDS Society (IAS) announced on February 24 the lineup for the 23rd International AIDS Conference, to be held in San Francisco and Oakland, United States, on 6-10 July 2020. The conference’s International Chair, Anton Pozniak, said the plenary “features this year’s most critical issues in the global HIV response”. The plenary program will feature issues including biomedical HIV prevention strategies, vaccine and cure research, advances in treatment, a global perspective on ‘U=U’ (undetectable equals untransmissible), paediatric HIV, resilience among women living with HIV, HIV-related inequities, social factors driving HIV, interventions for people who inject drugs, aging with HIV, funding the response, and progress towards global targets.

Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands will address the plenary on Tuesday, 7 July, on ‘Doubling down: Our X-billion dollar challenge to end AIDS’.

See the AIDS 2020 website’s full plenary lineup…