Board

18-19 March 2004, Geneva.

News: Board Meeting appoints NGOs' representative to Board Vice-Chair and decides to reappoint the Fund's Executive Director

Hélène Rossert-Blavier, Global Fund Board Member representing Developed Country NGOs, has been voted Board Vice-Chair. Dr Rossert, a medical and public health doctor, is the General Director of the French NGO AIDES, one of the largest community based NGOs fighting AIDS in Europe. Her expertise ranges from community health to fighting against HIV/AIDS, developing countries and political advocacy.

Hélène Rossert has fostered the development of AIDES' international programs in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as Algeria, Morocco and Cuba. She has been published in a variety of publications and has been the Editor of Info Plus (AIDES publication for people living with HIV) since 1999.

Dr Rossert joins a leadership team chaired by United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G Thompson.

At the same meeting, the Board decided unanimously to reappoint Dr Richard Feachem as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Dr Feachem, a British national, was appointed the first Executive Director of the Global Fund at the Second Meeting of the Board of the Global Fund in April, 2002. Prior to his position at the Global Fund, Dr Feachem was founding Director of the Institute for Global Health in San Francisco, and Professor of International Health at the University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley.

In his report to the Board, presented at the start of the meeting, Dr Feachem addressed the immediate, near-term and medium-term challenges facing the Global Fund including - apart from the urgent imperative of raising new funds and swiftly and accountably disbursing them - the need to evaluate and optimize the efficacy of country coordination processes, the provision of technical assistance to Global Fund grantees and the evolution of the Global Fund itself to a mature, sustainable mechanism primed to diagnose and respond to the challenges ahead.

Read the Report [ download in English ] from the Executive Director, Richard Feachem, to the seventh Board meeting of the Global Fund

Key decisions made during the Board meeting, which along with full Board Meeting documentation will be available on the website shortly, include:

• Approval of the Global Fund's 2004 budget for operating expenditure for the Secretariat and Local Fund Agents
• Adoption of policy and procedures for funding grants beyond their initial two-year phase
• Adoption of policy and procedures for prioritizing proposals recommended by the Technical Review Panel in the event of resource constraints
• Approval of the appointment of new members to the Technical Review Panel and the creation of a TRP support group
• Reaffirmation of full Global Fund commitment to supporting the WHO “3x5” initiative to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to three million people by the end of 2005
• Creation of a Technical Evaluation Reference Group which will provide independent advice, assessment and oversight for the Fund’s work on monitoring and evaluation

Board Meeting Documents