The Global Fund: why anti-corruption, transparency and accountability matter

Background The creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, also known as the Global Fund, was prompted by the lack of a timely and effective global response, and the need for financing to fight against three devastating diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. During the formation of the Global Fund, necessary anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability (ACTA) structures were not put in place to prevent fraud and corruption in its grants, which resulted in the misuse of funds by grant recipients and an eventual loss of donor confidence in 2011. The Global Fund has instituted various ACTA mechanisms to address this misuse of funding and the subsequent loss of donor confidence, and this paper seeks to understand these implementations and their impacts over the past decade, in an effort to probe ACTA more deeply. Results By restructuring the governing committees in 2011, and the Audit and Finance; Ethics and Governance; and Strategy Committees in 2016, the Global Fund has delineated committee mandates and strengthened the Board’s oversight of operations. Additionally, the Global Fund has adopted a rigorous risk management framework which it has worked into all aspects of its functioning. An Ethics and Integrity Framework was adopted in 2014 and an Ethics Office was established in 2016, resulting in increased conflict of interest disclosures and greater considerations of ethics within the organization. The Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has effectively performed internal and external audits and investigations on fraud and corruption, highlighted potential risks for mitigation, and has implemented ACTA initiatives, such as the I Speak Out Now! campaign to encourage whistleblowing and educate on fraud and corruption. Conclusions From 2011 onwards, the Global Fund has developed a number of ACTA mechanisms which, in particular, resulted in reduced grant-related risks and procurement fraud as demonstrated by the decreased classification from high to moderate in 2017, and the reduction of investigations in 2018 respectively. However, it is crucial that the Global Fund continues to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms; monitor for potential perverse impacts; and make necessary changes, when and where they are needed.

Study protocol: Assessing the association between corporate political influence and implementation of policies to tackle commercial determinants of non-communicable diseases: a cross-sectional analysis of 172 countries

Objectives: To assess the association between corporate political influence and implementation of WHO-recommended policies to constrain sales, marketing and consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods. Design: Cross-sectional analysis using national datasets from 2015, 2017, and 2020. Setting: Global analysis of data from 172 of the 194 WHO Member States Main outcome measures: We will use random effects multivariate regression to test the association between implementation status of 12 WHO-recommended tobacco, alcohol, and diet policies and corporate political influence, a metric that combines disclosure of campaign donations, public campaign finance, corporate campaign donations, legislature corrupt activities, disclosure by politicians, and executive oversight. We will control for GDP per capita, population aged >65 years, urbanization, level of democracy, continent, ethno-linguistic fractionalization, legal origin, Small Island Developing States, and Muslim population (to capture alcohol policy differences). We will include year dummies to address the possibility of a spurious relationship between the outcome variable and the independent variables of interests. For example, there may be an upward global trend in policy implementation that coincides with an upward global trend in in the regulation of lobbying and campaign finance. Ethics and dissemination: As this study uses publicly available data, ethics approval is not required. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Findings will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication in the academic literature. All data, code, and syntax will be made publicly available on GitHub.

Ethical consideration of Islamic banks in Pakistan: an empirical analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it assesses communicated (information disclosed in annual reports and websites) ethical values of Islamic banks (IBs) by using an index based on Islamic precept. Second, this research paper analyzes the perception of employees working in IBs of Pakistan regarding previously mentioned dimensions constructed in the form of index. Third, it explores the difference (if any) between communicated and perceived ethical values of IBs in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach This study incorporated two research methods, namely, content analysis (qualitative method) and descriptive analysis (quantitative method) to assess communicated and perceived ethical values. A checklist was designed that includes total six dimensions with 106 items or constructs. For perceived ethics, survey method is used to explore how far in practice IBs are operating in line with Islamic finance ethics in Pakistan by distributing questionnaires among employees. Findings This research study revealed overall satisfactory communicated and perceived ethical values in IBs of Pakistan. It is generally concluded that Meezan Bank is doing well in all dimensions as compare to other three banks in Pakistan. Some banks such as Dubai Islamic Bank and Albaraka Islamic bank lack proper format of annual reports. It recommended proper training and development of employees particularly about Islamic banking products and procedure. Moreover, it is recommended to take initiative of attracting female segment of the society and environment protection related campaigns. Research limitations/implications Because of data and time constraints, an extended beneficiary analysis could not be materialized in this study. Therefore, for future research, it is recommended to expand the stakeholders’ analysis beyond employees of IBs. Practical implications This study may be helpful for policymakers and other stakeholders to improve the image and for further growth of IBs in Pakistan. Social implications This study is the part of corporate social responsibility, so it will add value to social norms of banking sector and provide different dimensions and constructs based on Islamic ethical and moral system. It highlights banker’s responsibilities toward society. Originality/value This paper supports the phenomena of Islamic banking and finance in emerging markets and shows its potential growth for the economy.

The Global Fund: Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability

Background: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has been a key international organization in improving the health of those affected by the three big diseases. It was created during a time of health crisis and did not have the necessary anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability (ACTA) structures in place to prevent fraud and corruption in its grants, which resulted in misuse of funds by grant recipients and loss of donor confidence in 2011. Almost one decade later, this paper seeks to describe the ACTA mechanisms within the Global Fund and their results. Results: At the highest level, the Board of Directors has restructured the Global Fund’s governing committees in 2011 and in 2016 to its current Audit and Finance, Ethics and Governance, and Strategy Committees. This has helped to delineate committee mandates and to strengthen the Board’s oversight and direction on operations. In addition, the Global Fund has adopted a rigorous risk management framework and has worked risk mitigation into all aspects of functioning. An Ethics and Integrity Framework was adopted in 2014 and an Ethics Office was established in 2016, resulting in increased conflict of interest disclosures and greater ethics considerations within the Global Fund. The Office of the Inspector General of the Global Fund has been effective in performing internal and external audits and investigations on fraud and corruption, suggesting changes to mitigate future risks, and implementing novel initiatives, such as the I Speak Out Now! campaign to encourage whistleblowing and to educate on signs of fraud and corruption. Finally, the “eyes and ears” of the Global Fund, the Local Fund Agents, have been involved in exposing fraud and corruption during the implementation of Global Fund grants. These mechanisms have reduced grant-related risks and procurement fraud in particular. Conclusions: Over the past decade, the Global Fund has developed a number of ACTA mechanisms. It will be critical that the Global Fund continues to monitor and evaluate how effective these mechanisms are and to make changes, when and where needed.

Ethics Events and Conditions of Possibility: How Sell-Side Financial Analysts Became Involved in Corporate Governance

ABSTRACTMobilizing Foucault’s genealogy, this article investigates how an “ethics event”—the involvement by some sell-side financial analysts in the United States and United Kingdom across the past two decades in corporate governance—emerged. It is found that the complex relations formed between specific historical precedents, normative discourses, and fields of power rendered certain issues in financial markets morally problematic and constructed analysts’ corporate governance work as a potential solution. Contributing to research in finance ethics, this article develops a novel perspective to conceptualize the rise of ethically relevant practices in financial markets, focusing on how ethical problems and their solutions are outcomes of discursive construction and power relations. This article also revises our understanding of the boundary between technical norms and moral norms in financial markets. When ethical crises occur, it is argued, transforming technical practices and revising the technical norms adopted by financial professionals has the potential to tackle ethical concerns.

Has the global fund been successful?

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a partnership created in 2002 to raise, manage and invest the world’s money to respond to three of the deadliest infectious diseases. As an international organization, the Global Fund mobilizes and invests more than US$4billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 100 countries. The activities of the partnership are controlled by the Global Fund Board, which comprises 28 members, operating through the Audit and Finance, Ethics and Governance and Strategy Committees [1, 2].