May 23, 2019
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) held its twice yearly meeting of its donor, civil society, private sector and other board members on May 15-16, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland. Below are highlights from that meeting.
ON TRACK FOR A STRONG SIXTH REPLENISHMENT
The Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference will be held on October 10, 2019 in Lyon, France. Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, noted that “the next six months are an absolutely critical period in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria. We need a successful Replenishment. We need to step up the fight.”
The Global Fund’s investment case sets a minimum target of $14 billion and outlines the reasoning for an increase of $1.8 billion (15 percent) over what was raised during the Fifth Replenishment period. Early pledges to the Sixth Replenishment have been positive, with Luxembourg, Ireland and Portugal all providing increases over their Fifth Replenishment pledges.
In addition to donor contributions, the investment case also calls for an increase in domestic resources to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. The Global Fund projects that domestic funding will grow 48 percent to $45.8 billion between 2021 and 2023.
ALLOCATION AND CATALYTIC FUNDING METHODOLOGY APPROVED
The Board approved the methodology for determining how funding will be allocated to countries in the 2020-2022 period. The methodology ensures the Global Fund focuses on countries with the highest disease burden and lowest economic capacity to fight the three diseases.
The approved allocation methodology maintains the previous disease funding breakdown, with 50 percent for HIV, 18 percent for TB and 32 percent for malaria. There were questions about the breakdown, particularly around the percentage for TB, but the Strategy Committee recommended remaining consistent with the previous allocation to avoid potential programmatic funding gaps. The Board approved minor adjustments to how the Global Fund calculates malaria burdens to better capture a country’s relative malaria transmission potential and to account for differences in country population growth.
The Board also approved five scenarios and 26 priorities for the Global Fund’s catalytic investments. However, allocations will depend on the total money raised during the upcoming Replenishment Conference. From 2017-2019, the Global Fund approved catalytic funding priorities one month before countries received their allocation letter, so the Board aimed to approve the priorities earlier to better help the Secretariat plan for their implementation.
NEW BOARD CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR
The Global Fund Board welcomed Donald Kaberuka as Board Chair and Roslyn Morauta as Vice Chair. Both began a two-year term. Previously, Dr. Kaberuka was president of the African Development Bank and chairman of its board of directors from 2005-2015. Prior to that he was finance minister of Rwanda from 1997-2005. Lady Roslyn Morauta currently serves as alternate board member for the Western Pacific Region constituency. She is the former first lady of Papua New Guinea, and chaired the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism in the country.
The new Chair and Vice Chair will provide unique perspectives and important leadership for the Global Fund’s efforts to promote greater domestic resource mobilization. When he was selected as the new Board Chair, Dr. Kaberuka noted “It is now time to face emerging issues and sustain the achievements. I look forward to working with the Board and staff to get to the next level. Ending these three epidemics is a fight of our time and the Global Fund has shown that it is possible.” More information on the new Board Chair and Vice Chair is available in the Global Fund’s press release.