Better financing development: Emerging forms of Governance and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria

The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria was established in 2001 as a multi-billion dollar financial mechanism to mobilise and distribute additional resources to fight these three diseases.

This project examines whether the innovative governance structure of the Fund has helped to mobilise additional resources, and whether it has affected the participation of developing countries in planning and implementing global policies in this area. The specific issues raised under each of these questions include:

1. The Global Fund as an innovation in global governance

· Governance of the fund: role of developing countries, effectiveness of governing board and secretariat

· Role played so far by non-state actors (principally NGOs and private sector)

· Early experience on design of country coordination mechanisms and performance-based funding systems

· Impact of the Fund on other multilateral and bilateral activities in the area · Experience of GAVI/Vaccine Fund as applicable the Global Fund; other experiments in networked governance compared

2. The Global Fund as a magnet for additional finance

· Strategies to increase sustainability, predictability and volume of government contributions; explaining the current shortfall; experience of comparable mechanisms

· The US position on Fund financing; Congressional approval issues

· Financial role of the private sector (foundations and corporations) and strategies to increase their engagement

· The Fund's links to other proposals for additional finance (eg the UK's International Finance Facility) and other globally agreed objectives such as the Millennium Development Goals

· Implications of the Fund's experience for other attempts to mobilise additional finance

Aims and methods

The specific aims of the project include

· to assess the early experience of the Fund and draw implications for other forms of networked governance and other mechanisms for mobilising and distributing additional finance;

· to draw lessons for the Fund from the experience of more established instruments;

· to consider strategies to enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of the Fund's governance and guarantee the fund's financial sustainability in the short and medium term.

An initial research meeting will be held in 2004 to bring together governments and non-governmental organizations from developing countries who are interacting with the Fund, along with current members of the Fund's Secretariat and Board and others in academia, fundraising, legal and policy circles who bring critical and innovative thinking to the challenges facing the Fund.

The Research Coordinator for the project is Jeremy Heimans.