When the Global Fund to fight AIDS TB and Malaria got off the ground in 2002, public health expert Josh Ruxin and RealPlayer CEO Rob Glaser recognized the Fund’s financial muscle to fight these diseases. They began wondering what it would take to ensure its success.

Management was the answer. Strategically ensuring the Global Fund’s effectiveness was the best hope for millions of people.

In 2002, Ruxin and Glaser created the Access Project, with a mission to improve the Global Fund’s flow of resources to the field. The Project began addressing a significant obstacle between the funds and their intended targets: many of the countries most needing the money lacked the capacity to produce adequate proposals, and once they had the funds, to implement the programs successfully.

With an initial investment of approximately $650,000 from the Glaser Progress Foundation, Access Project assisted ten countries with the development of Global Fund proposals that secured nearly $600 million in two-year approved funding and more than $1.4 billion in total lifetime budgets. In doing so, Access Project strengthened the Global Fund far beyond the actual dollars spent.

Today, the Project is focusing its efforts on a small landlocked country in the heart of Africa, a country once considered hopeless, but now burgeoning with potential… a country called Rwanda.

By working intensively to help Rwanda strengthen its health care system, the Access Project is achieving measurable improvements in health indicators and disease management…demonstrating that business models for better management can make all the difference in the world.

Access Project is supported by a grant from the Glaser Progress Foundation, with additional support from the MAC AIDS Fund, Pfizer, and numerous smaller donors.