Binagwaho on team to pick new Global Fund chief

The Minister of Health, Dr Agnes Binagwaho has been picked to seat on the ad hoc nominations committee to select the next Global Fund Executive Director.The Global Fund is an international financing organisation that mobilises and disburses resources to prevent and treat HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.Binagwaho will be representing the implementers block on this committee made up of nine individuals (six from the Global Fund Board and three independents). Her experience and performance as a leader and manager of different programmes funded by the Global Fund since 2002 as, first, the Executive Secretary of the former National Aids Control Commission (CNLS), and then Permanent Secretary and now as Minister of Health, will be critical in informing the decision of the board in the selection process, observers say. In an interview with The New Times, she said she is yet to receive the official communication. “Rwanda has gained trust from the fact that we are ably managing the Global Fund money and also because of our zero tolerance to corruption,” she said. Arthur Asiimwe, the Director General of Health Communication Centre, said Binagwaho will represent the interests of all implementer governments across the world in advising the Fund.Also nominated are Don Baxter, Karlo Boras, Nils Daulaire, Mireille Guigaz and Masaki Noke. Binagwaho was appointed Minister of Health in May 2011 after serving as Permanent Secretary from October 2008.