Equal Salary Certification for the Global Fund
20 September 2019
On 18 September 2019, the Global Fund Secretariat celebrated its formal recognition as an equal salary employer.
The recognition follows an extensive process of analysis and audit, interviews and focus groups, working towards certification from the Equal Salary Foundation, a non-profit organization specialized in promoting equal compensation across gender lines.
Obtaining certification is verification that female and male employees are paid equally for the same job or for jobs of the same value. The Global Fund joins only a small group of other organizations to have been certified in the Geneva area, including Gavi and the World Economic Forum.
Receiving the certification, Peter Sands, Executive Director, thanked the Equal Salary Foundation for driving the process and said, “These days, it shouldn’t really be necessary for an organization to have to be certified for something so fundamental – it ought to be embarrassing not to be certified. I’m also thankful for the way in which the process has helped us go beyond the question of pay to consider more broadly our HR policies and our management’s commitment to equal pay for men and women.”
Sands added, “A big learning for me has been quite how powerful gender inequalities are in defining the nature of our mission – and the way it drives the epidemics, both visibly and invisibly. But it’s not enough to externalize this as an issue. We must hold ourselves true to the same values in our own organization. This is a step. We must not be complacent on the issue of equality, but we should celebrate success along the journey.”
Speaking for the Equal Salary Foundation, its founder, Veronique Goy Veenhuys, said, “My ambition was to create a practical tool to address objectively a very sensitive issue. Becoming certified is something provable, which takes the emotion out of a very emotive subject. Congratulations to the Global Fund for taking action, and being brave enough to undertake this process.”