The Global Fund becomes an administratively autonomous institution as of 2009
19 December 2008
Geneva – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced that effective 1 January 2009 it will become an administratively autonomous international financing institution, separating from the World Health Organization (WHO).
When the Global Fund was established, in 2002, it entered into an Administrative Services Agreement (ASA) with WHO. Under this arrangement, WHO provided a range of administrative and financial services to the Global Fund. This arrangement enabled the Global Fund to start operations quickly and to fund programs delivering life-saving services less than a year after it was established in January 2002.
The arrangement with WHO was intended to be temporary and in November 2007 the Global Fund Board decided that it should be terminated on 31 December 2008. The Global Fund is extremely grateful to WHO for the support and services it provided throughout these seven years.
Becoming administratively autonomous allows the Global Fund greater flexibility as an institution. It provides an opportunity for the Board and the Secretariat to shape the Global Fund’s own organizational culture and find ways of working that are more appropriate and efficient for a Geneva-based international financing institution dedicated to financing the expanding demand for programs to fight the three pandemics by the most efficient and effective means. The Global Fund retains a status as an international institution with privileges and immunities similar to UN organizations in Switzerland and the United States.
“For almost seven years, WHO has provided the Global Fund with a wide range of essential services that enabled the organization to focus on its core mission; to save lives of people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said Dr Michel Kazatchkine, the Global Fund’s Executive Director. “The fight against the three diseases can only be won through close partnerships and I look forward to a continuing close working relationship with WHO.”
The termination of the arrangement with WHO means that the Global Fund will manage its own administrative services in areas of human resources, finance, administration, procurement and IT services as of 1 January 2009.
WHO acts as a technical partner in a lot of Global Fund recipient countries, helping Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) with their program proposals and giving normative and technical advice for the implementation of grants.