Based on a report released last week by a high-level independent review panel on fiduciary controls and oversight mechanisms at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, “[t]he changes needed at the Fund are clearly substantial,” according to a Lancet editorial. “However, as the report notes, there is ‘nothing that cannot be fixed by appropriate reform.’ Whether governments in this era of austerity will stick by the Fund as it evolves is now a major concern. But there are good reasons for donors to keep funding the Global Fund,” the editorial states.

The editorial outlines five reasons donors should continue to fund the effort, including that “it saves lives”; it “gives the largest and broadest return on investment than any other financing mechanism in global health”; without it, progress on the millennium development goals (MDGs) would be “curtailed, and even reversed”; “it, like no other multilateral organization, is transparent about corruption allegations, making them public and taking swift measures to investigate”; and “it is responsive to criticism and committed to continuous improvement.” The editorial concludes, “The case for continued support of the Fund is strong. As the panel’s report puts it: ‘Failure of the Global Fund would be a global health catastrophe.’ It is a disaster that the global health community must not allow to happen” (10/1).