Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine to step down in mid-March

Geneva – The Global Fund’s Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine, has decided to step down in mid-March after leading the organization for five years, during which time he oversaw a dramatic expansion in the organization’s life-saving work.

“For the last ten years, the Global Fund has been my passion and my most important undertaking,” Prof. Kazatchkine said in a statement to staff. “I am immensely proud of what the Global Fund has achieved in these ten years, and I am tremendously grateful that I have been able to play a central part in its evolution and success.” 

The Global Fund’s Board in November decided to appoint a General Manager to oversee an ambitious transformation plan. The General Manager, whose appointment was the subject of a separate announcement today, will report to the Board.

Prof. Kazatchkine said that while he respects the Board’s decision to appoint a General Manager and “trusts that it was made in the best interests of the Global Fund”, he has concluded that he should not continue as Executive Director in these circumstances.

“I am committed to an orderly transition and I will do all that I can to ensure that the Global Fund emerges from it as a stronger organization,” Prof. Kazatchkine said in his statement.

“Few individuals have played a more central role in the creation and evolution of the Global Fund than Michel,” said the Global Fund’s Board Chair, Simon Bland. “The Global Fund as we know it today, the millions of lives it has saved, and the many other successes and innovations with which the Fund is associated, all bear Michel’s imprint.  Most importantly, his unwavering commitment to health, to human rights and to supporting the weakest and the unprotected, has helped shape the Global Fund into the beacon of hope it is today for tens of millions of people around the world.”

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Read Message from the Executive Director to Staff and Partners

Read Message from Chair of the Board to the Board of the Global Fund

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The Global Fund is a unique, public-private partnership and international financing institution dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents an innovative approach to international health financing. The Global Fund’s model is based on the concepts of country ownership and performance-based funding, which means that people in countries implement their own programs based on their priorities and the Global Fund provides financing on the condition that verifiable results are achieved.

Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has become the main financier of programs to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, with approved funding of US$ 22.6 billion for more than 1,000 programs in 150 countries (as of 1 December 2011). To date, programs supported by the Global Fund are providing AIDS treatment for 3.3 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 8.6 million people and 230 million insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts in dealing with the three diseases.

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ANDREW HURST
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