Maturity and systems theme of 33rd Board meeting
aidspan - The Global Fund used its 33rd Board meeting on 31 March-1 April to demonstrate its continued maturation as an organization and show that the systems it has put in place are working.
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The meeting was long on discussion points -- strategy development, refinement of the new funding model, investments in health systems strengthening, better integration of community, rights and gender -- and short on major decisions. It was down to the business of administering grants -- some $2.5 billion in 2014 -- in more than 110 countries, as senior Secretariat officials noted in comments to Aidspan, and less about tinkering with formulas and methodologies. Stronger and differentiated systems Some constituencies, however, were keen on more tinkering. Health systems strengthening was the byword of many discussions of how to ensure impact at country level and to ensure more is done by recipients of Global Fund assistance to transition away from needing those grants to sustain disease programming. In his presentation to the Board, executive director Mark Dybul noted that 35% of the investments approved thus far under the new funding model were designed to assist with HSS, at the national and community levels. How that has been derived, however, has been unclear. Aidspan anticipates deeper analysis of the HSS component of the NFM once a greater number of concept notes is made public. |