The Private Sector Delegation (PSD) has devoted considerable energy over the past six months to examining and discussing the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 Strategy. These discussions spanned five separate in-person events as well as electronic dialogues. The PSD intentionally carved out designated space within the official strategic consultation process to gather broad private sector-specific input.

In order to capture the perspectives of those private sector stakeholders who do not enjoy membership on the Delegation, the PSD collaborated with the Global Fund Secretariat to host a series of private sector consultations between June and August of 2015. The series of four consultative events was convened across geographies in order to gather input from a diverse group of private sector stakeholders on the development of the next Global Fund Strategy. The consultations were held in Bangkok, Thailand (23 June 2015), Geneva, Switzerland (29 June 2015), Lagos, Nigeria (24 July 2015), and New York City, United States (4 August 2015). In total, the consultations welcomed over 60 private sector representatives across several industries, including pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, fashion, consulting, and technology.

Across the four consultations, there were a collection of shared priorities. Specifically, participants highlighted the need for the Global Fund to increase cross-sector inclusivity, both at the operational country level, and in efforts to foster long-term sustainability. Participants also honed in on the issue of market shaping, agreeing that the Global Fund should carefully design its role in market shaping to ensure long-term success. Finally, attendees across all consultations shared the belief that strengthening health system capacity will require leveraging a mix of public and private health care provision, noting that when building resilient systems for health it is critical to consider all parts of the health system.

The annual PSD Retreat – hosted this year by Eli Lilly in Geneva – continued the conversation on the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 Strategy, expanding upon the themes identified during the series of consultations. Before launching into a discussion on the Strategic Framework and plan itself, the PSD listened to a presentation on the Global Fund Strategy Development Process, led by Harley Feldbaum of the Secretariat’s Policy Hub. After a question and answer session with Feldbaum, the Private Sector was invited to share their revisions to the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 Draft Strategic Framework directly with the relevant contacts in the Secretariat.

One of the key inputs developed by the PSD during the Retreat was the formulation of those Strategic Framework revisions. The PSD recommended that the Policy Hub add language to the Framework about the importance of incentivizing innovation. A core principle of the PSD throughout the discussions on the Framework has been that spurring innovation in service delivery models, financing mechanisms, and health technologies will be key to increasing the ability of the Fund and countries to scale up access to treatment and prevention in an era of resource constraints and competing priorities.

The PSD submitted its proposed Strategic Framework revisions – inclusive of the themes surfaced during the series of consultative events – in mid-September.  The most recent version of the Framework was circulated by the Secretariat in advance of October’s 16th SIIC Meeting, and the PSD commended the new inclusion of language highlighting innovation as it relates to facilitating the introduction of health technologies and implementation models.