The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it agreed to participate in the Pledge Guarantee for Health, a new partnership “to leverage private sector funding to speed delivery and expand access to health supplies such as contraceptives, bed nets, and medicines.” The program is a “new financing mechanism that will help increase the impact of each dollar of donor funding and ultimately improve healthcare access and outcomes for millions of people.” Developed and incubated by the United Nations Foundation, The Pledge Guarantee for Health “facilitates innovative financing that expedites the disbursement of donor funds, making global health supplies more accessible and more affordable for developing countries.” The United States Agency for International Development and the Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation are providing a 5-year partial guarantee to help speed up the procurement of essential medicines and health supplies by governments and civil society partners. In collaboration with commercial banking partners, this partial guarantee enables the Pledge Guarantee for Health to access $100 million in credit that, over 5 years, can mobilize tremendous lending capacity…
Full Release: 17 May 2013  http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/mediacenter/newsreleases/2013-05-17_Global_Fund_Joins_New_Innovative_Financing_Partnership/

   The Global Fund published a report on preventing and detecting possible misuse of funds in countries where it makes grants. The report, prepared by Chief Risk Officer Cees Klumper, “outlines actions that the Global Fund has taken over the past year to reduce risk and improve oversight.” Mr. Klumper pointed out that “investing in developing countries means taking calculated risks. In order to manage those risks, significant measures are in place with a particular focus on fraud prevention and detection.” While 1.9 percent of Global Fund grants have been determined to have been misspent, fraudulently misappropriated or inadequately accounted for, the Global Fund “does not tolerate any misuse of funds, no matter how minor.” The proportion of the grant portfolio accounted for by fraudulent misappropriation is 0.3 percent. Starting in 2012, the Fund “has begun to apply a systematic approach to grant risk management that can be considered leading practice. All risks that determine a grant’s success are captured, documented and assessed on a regular basis. These risk assessments inform specific risk mitigation measures, including for fraud risks, grant-by-grant…”
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/mediacenter/announcements/2013-05-17_Global_Fund_Report_on_Preventing_and_Detecting_Possible_Misuse_of_Funds/