Dear subscribers

This issue we kick off with a thought-provoking article by our Board member Professor Alan Whiteside, looking back on the two past years of COVID and where we are now. Has the pandemic now become endemic, and what does this mean for the future? (COVID-19: An endemic pandemic? What does that mean?)

We catch up with the reports from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The first looks at procurement during COVID (OIG Audit Report Procurement and Supply Chain during the COVID-19 pandemic) and the second is the results of a special investigation into embezzlement of global Fund monies by the former Executive Director of a Dutch-based non-government organisation (OIG Report on Embezzlement in the Netherlands). The full magnitude of what happened and the impact this has had is a sad read. Yet again, a salutary lesson about the need for the Global Fund and its grantees to review their checks and balances and put measures in place to ensure this does not happen again.

Our fifth article looks at the pilot project of three West African countries to widen the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis to female sex workers and provides inspiration for other countries to scale up their availability of PrEP (African women could really benefit from greater access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). We then go on to interview Roberto Garcia Saez’s about the sequel to his first novel (Finally, a novel about the Global Fund!) whose main character, Dee Dee, is transgender. It focuses on the struggles that LGBT people face. Roberto says ‘it is also about competition between organizations for financial resources, oversized egos and the collective response’. Through it, he says, he also pays tribute to the tremendous progress that was made possible thanks to HIV activists.

Finally, if last year was characterized by the development of the Global Fund Strategy, this year’s focus must surely be the Seventh Replenishment. It is already starting with the Preparatory Meeting of the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment, 23-24 February 2022 .

And please do provide Likes (or Dislikes) and Comments under the articles: without feedback, we cannot improve or give you more (or less) of what you want (or don’t want).

Aidspan Team