The Global Fund

This chapter compares the efforts of NGOs in Russia and South Africa to mediate global approaches to tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their home contexts. It illustrates both the benefits and drawbacks of engaging with GGIs that offer significant levels of authority to NGOs along with very specific rules and standards. Such strong tools, when placed in NGOs’ hands, can help them to mediate effectively in a welcoming domestic political environment; but if dominant political actors oppose global norms, they can lead to pitched battles between civil society and government actors. NGO activists who persevere in a relatively open democratic regime that protects civil and political rights, such as South Africa, can contribute to domestic normative change over time, leading eventually to government policies that align with global principles. Where the political environment is relatively closed and repressive of civil society, as in Russia, NGOs may struggle to muster sufficient authority to mediate effectively.