The Global Fund Board meets in Hanoi: First Board meeting in the Western Pacific Region since 2007 and first post-pandemic meeting to be held outside Geneva.
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Board members thanked the outgoing Global Fund Board Chair Dr Donald Kaberuka
This GFO is a special post-Board issue when we bring you articles on the most interesting issues up for Board discussion, a summary of discussions, stakeholder feedback and the Decision Points approved by the Board. But first of all: the Decision Points.
Dear subscribers,
The Global Fund held its 49th Board meeting between 8-11 May 2023 in Hanoi, Vietnam. This is our special Board issue of the Global Fund Observer, where we bring you the most important outcomes, Decision Points up front and then we take a closer look at the background papers that resulted in the recommendation of Decision Points to the Board.
This meeting was the first to take place outside the Fund’s headquarters in Geneva after the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was an opportunity for Board members and constituencies to experience the impact of Global Fund investments on the ground through several field visits that took place pre- and post-Board meetings.
This Board meeting, while quieter than November’s which saw replenishment amounts coming in during the meeting, was nonetheless an exciting one because it took place between Windows 1 and 2 for the submission of funding requests from eligible countries for the 2023-2025 cycle. Hence, the Board, Secretariat and partners were able to see the first results of funding request submissions aligned to the new Global Fund Strategy 2023-2028 and reflecting new priorities and strengthened areas of importance. At the time of writing, 42 countries had submitted under Window 1 and 68 are expected to submit by the Window 2 deadline of 30 May 2023. Here is the link to the feedback from the Technical Review Panel on Window 1 submissions, in Article 4 (Technical Review Panel’s observations and recommendations on Window 1 funding applications: Part I).
But first, we start with the Board Decision Points followed by the Executive Director’s speech, before we move onto some of the substantive Board papers. Additionally, last week in our special pre-Board GFO , we covered some of the Board papers relating to the Global Fund’s 2022 Performance and the Resource Mobilization Update, as well as an article on the set-asides.
This week ,we cover the Risk Management Report and Annual Opinion of the Chief Risk Officer, the Global Fund’s collaboration with the Pandemic Fund (The Global Fund Board approved the Fund’s continued engagement with the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund) and the country funding, including Catalytic Investments (The underfunding of catalytic investments has aroused much debate). We also discuss the Annual Report and Opinion of the Ethics Officer. Finally, we conclude with the KPI framework adjustments.
The Board also paid tribute to the unfailing leadership of outgoing Board Chair Dr Donald Kaberuka who has unerringly steered the Global Fund through three extremely tumultuous years of COVID-19 pandemic and the Seventh Replenishment. He was appointed as Global Fund Chair Emeritus by a decision point. The Board welcomed the new Board leadership, Lady Roslyn Morauta and Mrs Bience Gawanas as Board Chair and Vice Chair respectively, for the period of May 2023 to May 2026. By the end of her three-year tenure Lady Ros will be the first Board Chair to spend seven years in a Board leadership position.
Our next issue of GFO, out on 24 May, will cover some of the other Board papers including Part II of the TRP feedback on Window 1 funding requests and a Thematic Discussion on Human Rights.
You may have noticed some problems with our website last week as we migrate to a new system, and as a result some of you may have received your last GFO, number 430, a few days later than planned. Our apologies for that – we had to publish in the middle of the website redevelopment and this was challenging to say the least. The ‘growing pains’ are now nearly over and we hope you like the new look website, courtesy of support from L’Initiative, and agree that it was worth the wait.
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The Aidspan Editorial Team
