What is the Global Fund ?

At the end of the 1990’s, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria were directly responsible for the death of 6 million people each year, in the poorest countries. Thanks to an unprecedented political mobilisation in the field of Health with the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the inclusion of the fight against pandemics in the agenda of the main global summits, the international community committed to raise massive funding and to promote a radically new approach as to development aid in health in favour of affected countries in their effort to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In the endeavour to put an end to these epidemics that posed a risk to the development and stability of many countries, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria was created in 2001, with an aim to attract, disburse and monitor the use of additional resources, over and above existing local funding sources.

In the last 16 years, remarkable progress has been achieved in terms of reducing the morbidity and mortality linked to the three diseases: incidence has been cut by 30 to 50%, depending on regions.

However, these epidemics remain major public health threats.

HIV / AIDS

37.9 million people live with the HIV, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and 23.3 million among them receive ARV therapy.

Every year, 1.7 million people are newly infected by the HIV.

TUBERCULOSIS

10.4 million people have tuberculosis and 1.7 million among them die of it, every year.

480,000 people develop multi-drug resistant TB every year.

MALARIA

216 million cases of malaria have been recorded in 2016, the first increase (compared to 2015) in the last 15 years.  90% of cases are recorded in sub-Saharan Africa and 80% of newly infected are pregnant women and children below 5.

A child under 5 dies of malaria every 2 minutes.

Principles of the Global Fund

Since its creation, the Global Fund has been governed by a set of principles that guide and structure its strategy and working modalities. These founding principles make it a model institution in terms of its international governance. They also define the strategic and management direction of the Global Fund.

  • The Global Fund is an international organisation aiming at funding programmes. It is not a technical operator and does not have personnel or offices in partner countries. Projects are implemented by local partners. The Global Fund coordinates its action with all bilateral and multilateral organisations working in the health sector.

  • The Global Fund is built on partnership principles that associate donor governments and beneficiary countries, the civil society and affected communities, foundations and the private sector.

  • The Global Fund aims at leveraging additional resources, including domestic financing in recipient countries.

  • The Global Fund promotes and finances all actions that aim at fighting efficiently the diseases through prevention, diagnostic, treatment and care, as well as socio-medical follow-up of patients.

  • Beneficiary countries are in charge of defining their own priorities and needs in the health sector through approaches involving multiple partners.

  • Funding from the Global Fund is granted and renewed based on performance and on the quality of results obtained.

  • Reaching equity is one of the objectives of the strategy developed by the Global Fund. It intends to target those who are most in need, taking into account poverty levels in implementing countries, as well as the weight of diseases and available resources to fight them in each context.

  • Programmes and projects are funded based on a sincere evaluation done by a committee of independent experts.

  • The Global Fund operates with a high degree of transparency. Applications for funding and funding decisions are available on the website of the Global Fund. All decision-making and programme implementation levels are accountable for their management and results.

A partnership organisation

Since its inception, the Global Fund has been a unique financial mechanism, able to mobilise public and private resources globally to fight 3 of the most deadly infectious diseases in developing countries : AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Working through partnerships is at the core of the Global Fund model. Its innovative character in the fields of development and global health is based on associating governments, civil society organisations, the private sector as well as affected communities with its governance. Such partnerships exist at all levels of the Global Fund, e.g. with :

  • Civil Society
  • National coordination bodies
  • The private sector
  • Technical development partners
  • Donors
  • The network of Friends of the Global Fund

Strategy of the Global Fund

Investing to put an end to epidemics

The Global Fund strategy for the period 2017 – 2022 aims at eradicating the 3 epidemics, that are threats to public health.

With this goal in sight, the Global Fund’s vision is articulated around 4 main strategic objectives :

  • To optimise the impact of programmes against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria ;
  • To promote and protect human rights and gender equality ;
  • To build robust and resilient health systems ;
  • To mobilise additional resources.

Resources and investments of the Global Fund

Every year, the Global Fund mobilises and invests nearly US$ 4 billion in programmes.

Allocation of resources

The funding model offers beneficiaries predictability and flexibility. It gives access to funding according to a flexible timeframe, where the implementation of projects is aligned on national strategies. Interaction and dialogue between project holders and partners are permanent, all along the grant and implementation processes, to achieve the best possible impact locally and globally.

The allocation of grants is needs-based. Every 3 years, the funding model decides on the amount that each country needs for the triennium according to its morbidity rate and its own financial capacity.

Financial resources of the Global Fund

The Global Fund raises funds across all sectors: from governments and the private sector, from foundations and individuals. Governments are the first donors to the Global Fund, contributing to around 93% of its resources. Financial contributions from the private sector are also significant, particularly through co-investments in projects.

Financial contributions to the Global Fund

The Global Fund raises contributions from governments and partners every 3 years. Funding cycles, known as « replenishments », were decided by its Board in the early years of the Fund, allowing the organisation to ensure the predictability of its funding model. Replenishment’ conferences take place every 3 years, where donor countries and partners pledge for the next 3-year cycle. The 6th replenishment conference of the Global Fund took place in Lyon on October 10, 2019.

Innovative Financing

Confronted with the magnitude of needs to eradicate the epidemics, the Global Fund seeks to diversify its sources of funding and to increase the impact of its investments and of national health plans. It develops initiatives and original partnerships that generate innovative financing, that come on top of traditional bilateral commitments :

  • The Global Fund directly supports financial instruments that complete traditional funding sources and increase the impact of actions ;
  • It coordinates, promotes and develop innovative approaches alongside with donors in recipient countries and with the private sector ;
  • Impact is the first objective sought by innovative financing initiatives. They complement funding from traditional donors so as to maximise impact in selected sectors of intervention.