GFAN Strategy 2026-2030

Letter to Advocates & Community Members

Dear GFANers,

It is with immense honor and heartfelt conviction that we release, on behalf of the Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN) International Steering Committee, our Strategic Plan, a living testament to the power of collective advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

This strategy calls on every member of the GFAN community, advocates, civil society organizations, implementing partners, and allied networks to embrace this Strategic Plan as your own. Study it. Use it. Hold us accountable to it. In addition, most importantly, let it fuel your advocacy with renewed purpose and precision.

The 2026–2030 period begins amidst a global health landscape that continues to change and is becoming more complex. After decades of progress in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria, momentum has slowed and global health financing is in decline. The resurgence of authoritarianism and the accompanying global rise of anti-rights and anti-gender movements are driving regressive policies and shrinking civic space in global health.

The 2026–2030 Strategy affirms GFAN’s core mission of uniting civil society and community voices for a fully funded and effective Global Fund. What changes is not our purpose, but our clarity. We have organized our work around three pillars: Unity, Expertise, and Advocacy. Together, they sharpen and align our longstanding roles of convening, informing, and advocating. 

Unity means we strengthen trusted relationships across regions, languages, and generations of advocates. We invest in youth leadership. We coordinate more closely across regional hubs. We protect civil society space and amplify underrepresented voices.

Expertise means we decode complex political and financial developments into clear, actionable insights. We connect global trends to local realities. We elevate community knowledge and equip advocates to respond quickly and strategically.

Advocacy means we mobilize ambitious financing for the Global Fund and defend its core principles — equity, inclusion, transparency, and accountability. It also means we engage, carefully and strategically, in broader global health discussions when doing so, strengthens our mission and the power of civil society.

As the world prepares for future pandemics, the architecture of global health governance is changing often without meaningful participation from the very communities that have led the response to past crises. These are not merely communities “most affected” by the three diseases: they are experts, with deep knowledge of the health systems that serve them, and longstanding leadership in designing, delivering, and examining accountable community-based responses. They must be recognized as central architects of future global health systems, not passengers in the process.

GFAN must draw on its collective strengths and meet the urgency of this moment head-on. GFAN was created to mobilize political and financial support for the Global Fund and our new strategy reconfirms and clarifies that the heart of GFAN’s work – mobilizing financial support for and advocating for civil society and community priorities at the Global Fund – remains unchanged.  But the moment demands more. Our new Strategy 2026- 2030 evolves our core mission to acknowledge the important role GFAN has already played in other spaces and processes and that there may be other global health spaces beyond – but complementary to -  the Global Fund where GFAN may add value to convene, align and support civil society and communities to equip us to defend existing gains, demand bold investments, and strengthen civil society’s collective ability to influence decision-making in an increasingly hostile and unstable environment.  Engagement beyond the Global Fund as an institution will remain selective and deliberate, informed and guided by the aim of strengthening a broader and more enabling advocacy ecosystem for our members.

Our core mission to secure ambitious and equitable Global Fund financing and to ensure that civil society and communities’ priorities shape the Fund’s evolution remains unchanged. At the same time, we connect our expertise to the challenges ahead. With the new strategy GFAN will continue to apply its competence derived from multistakeholder collaboration with (and within) the Global Fund to reimagine cooperation and financing for global health in ways that promote equity, justice, and sustainability.

Overall, the 2026–2030 Strategy situates GFAN within an evolving ecosystem, equipped to defend, strengthen, and advance the future of global health solidarity, grounded in the lived experience and leadership of our members.

The years ahead will not be easy. But we have faced difficult moments before — and we have prevailed when we acted together.

In Solidarity,

GFAN Secretariat

GFAN Steering Committee