Short Items

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 3

ABSTRACT Lieve Fransen of the European Commission is the Fund's new Vice Chair. The Fund has appointed an Inspector General to provide independent and objective oversight. The Fund's new Chief of Operations is a Nigerian public health expert. Three new NGO representatives have been chosen to serve as Alternates and then as full Board Members. A new website has been launched called PEPFAR Watch.

Vice Chair

The Fund’s Board has chosen Dr. Lieve Fransen as its new Vice Chair. Dr. Lieve Fransen is Head of the Human and Social Development Unit at the Directorate-General for Development of the European Commission, and has been an active Board Member since the Fund started. She holds MD and PhD degrees from Belgian universities.

Dr. Fransen was elected Vice Chair after Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, France’s AIDS Ambassador, resigned from the position in January. When he resigned, Prof. Kazatchkine simply said that he was doing so because he wanted “to take some distance and time to think, outside of the day-to-day pressure.” But after Dr. Richard Feachem, the Fund’s Executive Director, announced that he will be leaving this year, Prof. Kazatchkine informed Agence France-Presse that he will apply for the job of Executive Director once the Board advertises the position.

Inspector General

The Fund has appointed Mr. Ibrahim Zeekeh to serve as Inspector General. The Office of the Inspector General operates as an independent unit of the Global Fund, reporting directly to the Board. Its primary purpose is to provide the Global Fund with independent and objective oversight to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of the Global Fund’s programs and operations. For background information and contact details, see www.theglobalfund.org/en/about/inspector_general. Further details will also be provided in a future issue of GFO.

Chief of Operations

The Fund has appointed Dr. Nosa Orobaton to serve as the new Chief of Operations (COO), the position occupied by Brad Herbert until late last year. The COO is in charge of all grant implementation activities.

Dr. Orobaton, a Nigerian, has a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health degrees from Johns Hopkins University, USA; and an MBA degree from the University of Maryland, USA. For the past ten years he has served as Chief of Party for John Snow Inc in Eritrea, Zambia and Uganda. He will take up his new position in July.

NGO board members

Each of the three NGO sectors has chosen the person who will serve as Alternate (i.e. Deputy) Global Fund Board Member for one year starting at this month’s Board Meeting, and then as the full Board Member for the year after that. The Global Fund Board and Secretariat played no role in choosing these people; they were chosen by their own sectors.

Dr. Lydia Mungherera is the new Alternate Board Member representing Developing Country NGOs. She is a person living with HIV/AIDS who serves as an advocacy officer for TASO (The Aids Support Organization) in Uganda.

Asia Russell (asia@healthgap.org) is the new Alternate Board Member representing Developed Country NGOs. She is Director of International Policy for Health GAP, a US advocacy and policy organization that works for universal access to HIV treatment in developing countries.

Javier Hourcade Bellocq (jhourcade@aidsalliance.org) is the new Alternate Board Member for NGOs representative of the Communities Living with the Diseases. He is a person living with HIV/AIDS who serves as a Senior Programme Officer with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PEPFAR Watch

A new website called PEPFAR Watch (www.pepfarwatch.org) has been jointly launched by the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and Health GAP (Global Access Project). The organizers intend the site to be a central source for news on US global AIDS law, policy, programs, and funding streams; analysis, critique, and debate on US global AIDS policies and on related concerns around sexual and reproductive health, treatment access, voluntary counseling and testing, and other critical issues.