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Complement the section on the founding of the Global Fund by making reference to the issue of 'aid effectiveness' as approved by OECD.
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The genesis of the Global Fund is with an article published in the British medical journal, ''[[The Lancet]]'', by [[Harvard]] academics [[Amir Attaran]] and [[Jeffrey Sachs]]. They in January 2001 called for an order of magnitude increase in foreign aid budgets for HIV/AIDS, over those the researchers documented in the 1990s. Attaran and Sachs proposed a new funding stream of $7.5 billion or more to fund projects proposed and desired by the affected countries themselves, and that a panel of independent scientific experts validates as having epidemiological merit against the pandemic.<ref name="Popline">[http://www.popline.org/docs/154856 Defining and refining international donor support for combating the AIDS pandemic]</ref> Attaran and Sachs also recommended that the new funding stream "must be based on grants, not loans, for the poorest countries",<ref name="Popline"/> unlike the [[World Bank]], which was the largest multilateral HIV/AIDS funder then existing.
The genesis of the Global Fund is with an article published in the British medical journal, ''[[The Lancet]]'', by [[Harvard]] academics [[Amir Attaran]] and [[Jeffrey Sachs]]. They in January 2001 called for an order of magnitude increase in foreign aid budgets for HIV/AIDS, over those the researchers documented in the 1990s. Attaran and Sachs proposed a new funding stream of $7.5 billion or more to fund projects proposed and desired by the affected countries themselves, and that a panel of independent scientific experts validates as having epidemiological merit against the pandemic.<ref name="Popline">[http://www.popline.org/docs/154856 Defining and refining international donor support for combating the AIDS pandemic]</ref> Attaran and Sachs also recommended that the new funding stream "must be based on grants, not loans, for the poorest countries",<ref name="Popline"/> unlike the [[World Bank]], which was the largest multilateral HIV/AIDS funder then existing.


The decision to create the new funding stream was taken by heads of state at the 2001 [[G8 Summit]] in [[Genoa]] (Italy), at the urging of [[United Nations Secretary General]] [[Kofi Annan]], and largely along the lines Attaran and Sachs described. The first Secretariat was established in January, 2002, and [[Richard Feachem]] was appointed as its first Executive Director in July of that year and served until March 31, 2007. Today, the Global Fund is headed by [[Michel Kazatchkine]], a public health expert with over 20 years of experience in the field. The September 2005 conference in [[London]] mobilized 3 billion euro, just over half the pledges at the [[Gleneagles, Scotland|Gleneagles]] G8 summit. In December 2002 the fund made its first disbursement to grantees.
The decision to create the new funding stream was taken by heads of state at the 2001 [[G8 Summit]] in [[Genoa]] (Italy), at the urging of [[United Nations Secretary General]] [[Kofi Annan]], and largely along the lines Attaran and Sachs described. Indeed, the United Nations system had been considered ill conceived to implement a major increase in development funding. Multiple organisations were converging with small-scale projects on countries with limited institutional capacities, which exacerbated a series of problems, including poor coordination, duplication, high transaction costs, limited country ownership and lack of alignment with country systems. Established in 2002, the Global Fund embedded a new aid paradigm based on partner country leadership, donor alignment with partner countries’ development strategies, harmonization of donor actions, managing for results, and donor and partner being mutually accountable for results. This was subsequently conceptualized by the [[OECD]] in its 2004 Paris Declaration on ‘aid effectiveness’.<ref>Joachim Müller (2010), [http://www.publication-series.net/home/reforming-the-united-nations/the-challenge-of-working-together-2010/ ''Reforming the United Nations: The Challenge of Working Together''], Martinus Nijhoff/Brill Publisher, pp. 92-93.</ref>

The first Secretariat was established in January, 2002, and [[Richard Feachem]] was appointed as its first Executive Director in July of that year and served until March 31, 2007. Today, the Global Fund is headed by [[Michel Kazatchkine]], a public health expert with over 20 years of experience in the field. The September 2005 conference in [[London]] mobilized 3 billion euro, just over half the pledges at the [[Gleneagles, Scotland|Gleneagles]] G8 summit. In December 2002 the fund made its first disbursement to grantees.


The [[United States]] is contributing $700 million to the fund, but has decided to divert the bulk of its AIDS funding to the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, [[PEPFAR]], to more closely control allocation.
The [[United States]] is contributing $700 million to the fund, but has decided to divert the bulk of its AIDS funding to the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, [[PEPFAR]], to more closely control allocation.

Revision as of 14:27, 12 October 2010

For Global Fund for Children, see The Global Fund for Children.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Founded2002, Genoa, Italy
Websitewww.theglobalfund.org

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (often commonly called "The Global Fund" or "GFATM") was established in January 2002 to dramatically increase global financing for interventions against the two pandemics (malaria is actually endemic). It is the largest international funder of programs to combat malaria and tuberculosis, providing two-thirds of all financing, and provides 20% of all international funding to combat HIV/AIDS. The Fund asserts that as of June 2007, 1.9 million lives have been saved thanks to efforts in 136 countries supported by the Global Fund.[1]

Founding

The genesis of the Global Fund is with an article published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, by Harvard academics Amir Attaran and Jeffrey Sachs. They in January 2001 called for an order of magnitude increase in foreign aid budgets for HIV/AIDS, over those the researchers documented in the 1990s. Attaran and Sachs proposed a new funding stream of $7.5 billion or more to fund projects proposed and desired by the affected countries themselves, and that a panel of independent scientific experts validates as having epidemiological merit against the pandemic.[2] Attaran and Sachs also recommended that the new funding stream "must be based on grants, not loans, for the poorest countries",[2] unlike the World Bank, which was the largest multilateral HIV/AIDS funder then existing.

The decision to create the new funding stream was taken by heads of state at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa (Italy), at the urging of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and largely along the lines Attaran and Sachs described. Indeed, the United Nations system had been considered ill conceived to implement a major increase in development funding. Multiple organisations were converging with small-scale projects on countries with limited institutional capacities, which exacerbated a series of problems, including poor coordination, duplication, high transaction costs, limited country ownership and lack of alignment with country systems. Established in 2002, the Global Fund embedded a new aid paradigm based on partner country leadership, donor alignment with partner countries’ development strategies, harmonization of donor actions, managing for results, and donor and partner being mutually accountable for results. This was subsequently conceptualized by the OECD in its 2004 Paris Declaration on ‘aid effectiveness’.[3]

The first Secretariat was established in January, 2002, and Richard Feachem was appointed as its first Executive Director in July of that year and served until March 31, 2007. Today, the Global Fund is headed by Michel Kazatchkine, a public health expert with over 20 years of experience in the field. The September 2005 conference in London mobilized 3 billion euro, just over half the pledges at the Gleneagles G8 summit. In December 2002 the fund made its first disbursement to grantees.

The United States is contributing $700 million to the fund, but has decided to divert the bulk of its AIDS funding to the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, PEPFAR, to more closely control allocation.

The Global Fund is the first organization of its kind, incorporated as a Foundation under Swiss law.[4] It is a new kind of public-private partnership but is often confused as being part of the United Nations family. This may be because the World Health Organization (WHO) provides many administrative services to the Global Fund secretariat and is also based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Effective 1 January 2009, the Global Fund became an administratively autonomous organization, terminating its administrative services agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO).[5]

In March 2009, the head of the Fund criticized statements made by Pope Benedict XVI, according to whom AIDS "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems." [6]

Replenishment phase

As of 2010 the Global Fund has entered its 'replenishment phase', i.e. it needs funders to commit themselves to continued financing. Alarms have been raised prior to the 2010 October meeting about a looming deficit in funding, which would lead to people currently undergoing ARV treatment losing access to this - increasing the chance of them becoming resistant to treatment. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé has dubbed the scenario of a funding deficit an "HIV Nightmare".[7]

The Global Fund needs at least 20 billion dollars in 2011-13. Its 2001-2010 budget includes 19,4 billion dollars, with 600 interventions in 145 countries and 5.7 lifes saved.[8]

Italy, founding member of the Fund seating in its administrative committee, announced at the Aquila 2009 G8 Summit a una tantum contribution of 30 million €. Both the una tantum and the 2009 and 2010 contributions (130 million € each) have not been disboursed (in fall 2010), for a total debt of 290 million €[8].

Operation

A characteristic of the Global Fund that has drawn much praise is the transparency of the organization. Information on the Global Fund's processes, including quite sensitive decision making processes, is available from their official website.

Importantly, the Global Fund is a financing mechanism rather than an implementing agency. This means that monitoring of programs is supported by a Secretariat of approximately 250 staff (in 2006) in Geneva. Implementation is done by Country Coordinating Mechanisms, which are committees consisting of local stakeholder organizations in-country that include some or all of government, NGO, UN, faith-based and private sector actors.

The Global Fund provides initial grant funding solely on the basis of the technical quality of applications, as evaluated by its independent Technical Review Panel. It provides continued funding to programs based solely on the basis of performance.

Grants are signed for an initial period of two years. Disbursements after the initial 6-month period are only provided after proven performance, and funding for subsequent years after the initial two-year period is only approved after rigorous review of results achieved.

The objective of the Global Fund — to provide funding to countries on the basis of proven performance — makes it different from any other international agencies that fund programs in the developing world. All other organizations, for example, the World Bank, the WHO and UNAIDS and many bilateral donors, provide funds and oversee implementation of programs. The focus is on recording what money has been spent on, rather than what targets have been achieved. Programs can normally be extended, sometimes indefinitely. These organizations have hundreds or thousands of staff that assist with implementation of grants. Due to the apparent lack of progress in stemming and mitigating the effects of the three diseases under existing mechanisms, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was set up.

Bilateral donors immediately pledged millions (in some cases billions) of US dollars in support of Global Fund programs. The innovative approach to its financing principles is obviously considered key to its success. Since its inception, the Global Fund has committed US $11.4 billion to more than 550 grants in 136 countries (as of Dec 2008).[9]

In March 2010, Dow Jones Indexes signed a memorandum with The Global Fund to explore the creation of co-branded indexes that could be licensed as the basis for investment products. The Global Fund aims to strengthen its engagement with the private sector, while the Dow seeks to add to its range of socially-conscious indexes.[10]

Major donations and administration

  • In January 2006, Bono and Bobby Shriver announced the launching of the Product Red campaign, proceeds from which would go to the Global Fund.
  • In August 2006, the Gates Foundation contributed $500 million to the Global Fund, calling the fund "one of the most important health initiatives in the world".[11]
  • In March 2006, Executive Director Richard Feachem announced his intention to step down, as soon as his successor was determined by the Global Fund Board. In April 2007, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine became the Global Fund's new Executive Director.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Global Fund Saves Lives". The Global Fund web site. Retrieved 2007-04-24.
  2. ^ a b Defining and refining international donor support for combating the AIDS pandemic
  3. ^ Joachim Müller (2010), Reforming the United Nations: The Challenge of Working Together, Martinus Nijhoff/Brill Publisher, pp. 92-93.
  4. ^ Agreement between the Swiss Federal Council and the Global Fund
  5. ^ The Global Fund becomes a fully autonomous international financing institution
  6. ^ AIDS activists blast pope's rejection of condoms
  7. ^ Hellevik, Siri Bjerkrem: "Is an HIV Nightmare on the Way?" at the NIBR International Blog, August 23, 2010
  8. ^ a b Template:ItLa Repubblica, 4 October 2010
  9. ^ About the Global Fund
  10. ^ Dow Jones Indexes developing products with The Global Fund, DJ press release, March 4, 2010
  11. ^ Gates puts $500m into global health fund
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