THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA: ASSESSING COMPLIANCE FROM GLOBAL HEALTH DONORS

Abstract

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) has a formidable position in the global health architecture owing to the significant resources it has garnered from major donors, and its influence in shaping the global health agenda. This thesis seeks to understand its role in global governance. To do so, it employs compliance theories from the International Relations and International Law literatures to determine why three distinct but crucial actors, the United States government, the Chevron Corporation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, invest in, and comply with, the GFATM. The thesis adopts a two-pronged approach: Chapter 3 applies Mitchell’s (1996) conceptualization of a compliance system to understand what is inherent to the GFATM that induces compliance by donors, and Chapters 4 and 5 apply March and Olsen’s (1998) logics of consequentialism and appropriateness to understand why the selected actors support and comply with the GFATM. Since the selected donors could invest in other funding mechanisms or channels, and since there are aspects of the GFATM’s operating mechanisms that run contrary to their approaches to development, this thesis will shed light on why these donors continue to comply with, and invest in, the GFATM.