On May 6-10, the Private Sector Delegation (PSD) convened in Skopje, Macedonia for the 39th Board Meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Board approved decisions to launch the revised Eligibility Policy for Global Fund grants and new approach to support non-eligible countries in crisis, confirmed a phased roll-out for the CCM evolution, appointed members to all three Board Committees for the next two-year term, adopted a new Risk Appetite Framework and a revised process for selecting the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board. The PSD actively engaged in deliberations in the lead up to and during the Board meeting to provide input to the Secretariat on these critical topics.
Revised Eligibility Policy: The Board unanimously approved the revised Eligibility Policy that determines country disease components eligible to receive funding. The Policy, which will be implemented for the 2020-2022 allocation, continues to prioritize countries with the highest disease burden and least economic capacity, as well as countries where HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria disproportionately affect key and vulnerable populations. The key revision is the new metric to determine TB burden, which is now based on incidence rate and accounts for drug resistance. Countries with a TB incidence rate per 100,000 greater than or equal to 50 or with the proportion of new drug-resistant TB cases greater than or equal to 5% are eligible for allocation.
There were two other changes: simplification of the disease burden categories from five to just two – high and not high, and the removal of the G-20 rule. However, currently ineligible G-20 countries continue to be ineligible and currently eligible South Africa, India and Indonesia would continue to be eligible upon becoming upper middle income (UMIC), if disease burden thresholds are met.
Global Fund Support to Non-Eligible Countries in Crisis: After the addition of a friendly amendment, the Board approved a way forward for the Global Fund to support non-eligible UMIC countries facing emergencies (e.g. Venezuela). The Secretariat will consider a health emergency to be a ‘crisis’ once it is classified as Level 3 by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) or Grade 2 or 3 by the WHO, or is assessed as such by CSO/NGO actors. The Global Fund may provide funding for up to three years with the total amount not to exceed the Emergency Fund amount. For the 2017-2019 period, the Emergency Fund is USD 20 million. All funding for non-eligible countries in crisis will require Board approval.
Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Evolution Initiative: A key element of the Global Fund partnership, CCMs are multi-stakeholder committees in each country that submit requests for funding to the Global Fund. CCMs are responsible for the development of funding requests, nomination of the Principal Recipient for approved grants, and grant implementation oversight. The Board approved two CCM-related decisions at its May meetings. The first was the approval of the CCM Code of Conduct and the new CCM Policy, which replaced the CCM Guidelines and Requirements adopted at the 23rd Board Meeting. The Board further decided to allocate USD 1,219,700 over a three-year period to fund the implementation and enforcement of the CCM Code of Conduct. The Secretariat will operationalize the CCM Policy and regularly report to the Board’s Strategy Committee on its implementation.
The second was the approval of an additional USD 3.85M for a phased roll-out of the CCM Evolution initiative in 16 countries in 2018-2019. The Secretariat will:
- select 16 CCMs of different types (standard, in transition preparedness countries and in challenging contexts) and at different maturity levels (basic, engaged and strategic) to assess effectiveness of recommended improvements in a variety of settings;
- implement activities in four key improvement areas: CCM functioning, engagement of constituencies, oversight, and linkages to national bodies to enhance sustainability of programs; and
- develop a set of short- and long-term indicators for the Strategy Committee’s review in July and regularly report to the Committee on the operationalization and results of the CCM Evolution initiative.
Appointment of Members to Board Committees for the 2018-2020 term: The Board appointed members to its three standing committees – Strategy, Audit and Finance, and Ethics and Governance – for the next term starting on May 11. Congratulations to the Private Sector candidate Renuka Gadde who was appointed to the Ethics and Governance Committee.
Several PSD companies attended the Global Fund Board meetings, including Abbott, BD, Gilead, Hetero Labs, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Mylan, Sanofi, Sumitomo, and Vestergaard. The 40th Board Meeting is scheduled for November 14-15, 2018.
At the close of the meeting, France was announced as the host of the next Global Fund Replenishment Conference in 2019.