Managing Ethics and Integrity at the Global Fund
18 September 2019
Since its inception in 2002, the Global Fund has continuously worked to develop a strong ethics and integrity culture. In 2014, the organization developed an Ethics and Integrity Framework, laying the foundation and principles for managing ethics and integrity risks and issues, and in 2016 an Ethics Officer was recruited. A dedicated Board committee (the Ethics and Governance Committee) oversees ethics-related matters, and the Secretariat has developed a Policy to Combat Fraud and Corruption.
The approach to implementing the Policy across the Secretariat and Global Fund operations has however been relatively unstructured, and some key ethics and integrity requirements are not covered within the Global Fund’s various Policies and Codes of Conduct. While there has been improvement in managing conflicts of interest, improvement is still required in addressing ethical issues relating to suppliers and implementers. Metrics to assess progress in implementing key components of the Ethics and Integrity Framework are also under-developed.