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Transparency on development aid saves lives

by Mark Dybul | The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Thursday, 14 April 2016 09:20 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Transparency and accountability mean life-saving commodities are procured and delivered on time and in a cost-effective way

Transparency and accountability are two of the founding principles of the Global Fund partnership. Not only do they capture our commitment that investments are effective, they spell out our moral obligation towards the people we serve – the women, children and men affected by HIV, TB and malaria.

Released by the non-profit Publish What You Fund, the AID Transparency index lists the Global Fund among the top five donors for aid transparency. In three of the operational categories – performance, related documents, and basic information – the Global Fund ranked at the top overall. 

Health investments made through the Global Fund have saved 17 million lives, expanding opportunity and achieving greater social justice for families and communities worldwide. But many lives are still at risk. We need every dollar to get the job done. And this is where efficiency and transparency play a vital role.

As a 21st-century partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics, the Global Fund believes that transparency is crucial to our effectiveness and to fulfilling our mandate. We are strong supporters of the IATI initiative, and were an early publisher of IATI data. Tremendous progress is being achieved by pooling resources and expertise with partners, and by involving governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases.

Transparency and accountability mean life-saving commodities are procured and delivered on time and in a cost-effective way. It also means that our programs are reaching the people who need them the most – adolescent girls and women, people in poor communities with little access to health care, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and prisoners. It means we continue promoting and protecting human rights, promoting gender equality, and making sure health investments are helping countries build resilient and sustainable systems for health.

As an organization that raises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year, the Global Fund operates with a high degree of transparency in all of its work, including applications for funding, funding decisions, grant performance, results, governance, and oversight. It is a value we live by when we come to work every day. The Global Fund has zero tolerance for corruption or misuse of funds, no matter how minor. It actively pursues and exposes any and all cases of improper use of funds, and recovers them as fully as possible. And we do it for a very simple reason: every misspent dollar takes away from a mother raising her daughter free of AIDS, prevents the delivery of a bed net to a family, or a dose of lifesaving TB medication to a father.

While the Global Fund does not shy away from investing in challenging countries with high levels of poverty and often weak systems, it is responsible in its approach to risk, and seeks to secure maximum value from its investments. That is why we have built a strong risk framework that balances fiduciary and programmatic risk management and seeks to guide the partnership toward achieving the best results. As an organization, the Global Fund has one of the most robust independent auditing systems of any multilateral institution. An independent Office of the Inspector General conducts audits and investigations on grants. All audits and investigations by the Office of the Inspector General are openly published.

Calls for donors and multilateral organizations to be more transparent and be held accountable to taxpayers are critical to achieving impact and help policy makers and citizens shape more effective responses. There is always a need for even more transparency.

Later this year, the Global Fund will hold a replenishment conference for the 2017-2019 funding cycle, in which we are aiming for a US$13 billion investment from governments and private sector partners to help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target of a world free from the burden of AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030. As we work with partners to achieve that goal, our donors and the people whose lives will be saved have our commitment of transparency and accountability.

Mark Dybul is the Executive Director of The Global Fund

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