The Global Fund’s Sixth Partnership Forums Generate Recommendations for the Next Global Fund Strategy
01 April 2021
The Sixth Partnership Forums ended on 15 March, having convened approximately 350 representatives from across the Global Fund partnership in a series of engaging, inclusive and energetic discussions to contribute to the development of the next Global Fund Strategy. These forums brought together stakeholders from across the Global Fund partnership, through three regional meetings that spanned Eastern Europe and Latin America; Africa; and Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sixth Partnership Forums were convened virtually with stakeholders providing input through a mix of plenaries, topic booths and more than 130 breakout group discussions.
The Partnership Forums are a central part of the development of the next Global Fund Strategy, which is being developed through a highly consultative process. Priorities shared in the Partnership Forums will add to perspectives received through the strategy development process to date, including the input gathered through the Global Fund’s 2020 Open Consultation on Strategy Development, through which over 5,000 individuals from different regions and stakeholder groups contributed their suggestions.
The Global Closing on 15 March brought participants back together to consolidate recommendations from across the three regional Partnership Forums. The recording of the event can be viewed on the strategy development webpage. Placing communities front and center of the next strategy was a core priority that stood out across the regional discussions. Another common theme across the forums was the need to maintain the focus on HIV, TB and malaria while contributing to building resilient and sustainable systems for health through integrated, people-centered approaches, and to support global health security and solidarity through rights-based approaches, building on areas of Global Fund strengths. Stakeholders also highlighted, among other areas, the critical need to redouble efforts to address equity, human rights and other structural barriers, and better tailor programs to local contexts.
To contextualize these recommendations in an evolving global environment, participants engaged in dialogue with Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund; Erika Castellanos, Director of Programs, Global Action for Trans Equality; and Professor Salim Abdool Karim, Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and Professor of Global Health at Columbia University. Representative Barbara Lee, Chairwoman of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, provided valuable input and support for the process via video remarks interspersed through the dialogue.
Equipped with this evidence and input from across the partnership, the Global Fund’s Strategy Committee and Board is taking forward discussions to develop the Global Fund’s post-2022 strategy, to be approved by the Board in November 2021, with implementation of the new strategy beginning in 2023 after the Seventh Replenishment conference. Detailed reports from each of the Partnership Forums, as well as updates on the resulting strategy framework and narrative, will be made available on the strategy development webpage.
With the new strategy, the Global Fund will be looking to the future, to see how the partnership can reinforce its unique country-driven and inclusive model to strengthen impact in the fight against the three diseases and contribute to better health for all as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals.