“Donors and health advocates may have struck Global Fund gold last week,” Ben Leo, director of the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the organization’s “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance” blog. Noting recent pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria made by the U.K. and Nordic country governments, Leo writes, “All of these actions are intertwined to leverage $5 billion from the United States (and vice versa) over the next three years. Secretary [of State John] Kerry is then supposed to deliver the final step of the highly choreographed plan this December — the Global Fund’s ultimate $15 billion financing target.” He continues, “While other donor governments continue stepping forward, U.S. politicians must decide whether the Global Fund deserves such generosity.” Leo discusses the Global Fund’s accomplishments, changes it has made in recent years, as well as some key issues facing the organization that may influence donor commitments moving forward (10/3).