January 2018
In its 38th Board Meeting, the Global Fund appointed Peter Sands as its new Executive Director to take over from the outgoing Executive Director Mark Dybul. Marijke Wijnroks will continue as Interim Executive Director until March 2018, when Peter Sands takes up his duties. Peter Sands’ appointment was welcomed by the Communities Delegation, which said in a statement it was “hopeful that under the leadership of Mr Sands, the Global Fund will effectively mobilise the resources needed to effectively achieve the Global Fund Strategy, and continue to save and improve the lives of people living with and affected by the three diseases”.
Leadership of the three Global Fund Committees has also been confirmed as follows:
Audit and Finance Committee: Chair – Beatrijs Stuikers-Muller (Developed Countries NGOs); Vice Chair – Anthony Garnett (United Kingdom).
Ethics and Governance Committee: Chair – Sandra Thurman (United States); Vice Chair – Grace Rwakarema (Eastern and Southern Africa).
Strategy Committee: Chair – Kieran Daly (Private Foundations); Vice Chair – Abdalla Osman (Eastern Mediterranean Region).
Moving forward through 2018 and into 2019 four key areas hold significant risks for our communities:
Global Fund Transition: Transition from Global Fund financing continues to be an area of serious concern for key populations, and work continues via the Communities Delegation and the Global Key Population Networks to ensure communities are prepared for the transition. For sex workers, NSWP continues to lobby and advocate for international donors to maintain and scale up support for key populations in countries that are in the process of transitioning.
NSWP remains doubtful that governments who criminalise sex workers and other key populations will invest in rights-based services to meaningfully support those same criminalised communities. A Global Fund Transition Alert will be published later this month and further joint advocacy with other key population networks is being will be planned.
Innovative Financing, including loan buy-downs:
The Global Fund Communities Delegation has also raised concerns about loan buy-down initiatives as part of innovative financing packages being explored by the Global Fund. The Delegation is supportive of using Global Fund grants to leverage larger amounts of financing, but is concerned as buy-downs are “a significant departure from any traditional grant investment by the Global Fund”. One main concern is the potential for key populations to be excluded, as loan buy-downs are essentially government-led programmes that do not necessarily include communities in design, implementation or evaluation. The Delegation has asked for clarity on the strategy to ensure that any new financing models will prioritise interventions for communities and key populations. The Communities Delegation and the Global Key Population Networks continue to work on this.
Review of the Global Fund Allocation Methodology: The Global Fund will begin its review into Global Fund Allocation in August. It is likely that in addition to the Gross National Income and disease burden they will add an adjustment component based on key population size estimates. However, the current methodology for size estimations does not really produce an accurate picture. We need to prepare the case that for such an important decision we need accurate data on size estimation and for that key populations should be contracted to undertake some of this work. This is something you might want to consider lobbying for at national level.
CCM Evolution:
The Global Fund’s process of evaluating and potentially restructuring Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) will be completed by the end of 2018. The critical area is ensuring key populations are involved fully in the analysis of the results of the consultations, which took place in 2017. Whilst emphasis will be on 'differentiating' the size and construct of CCMs based on country context, how this is managed is crucial. From experience, if the size of a CCM is reduced the community and key population seats will likely be at risk. It is crucial that community is involved in order to highlight and mitigate any negative impact from this.
We will continue to keep you updated on these and other areas, as more information becomes available.