About This Manual
How ASF’s 47 institutional policies are owned, versioned, and fit together — the reference page behind the policy table, not a policy itself.
What This Manual Is
ASF’s institutional policy manual is the set of 47 numbered policies published at Governance and Policies, grouped into seven categories. It governs how ASF itself conducts its affairs — it is not the accreditation standards ASF applies to facilities, which live separately at Standards.
Ownership
Every policy has a named owner — the role responsible for keeping it current, answering questions about it, and proposing revisions. Ownership sits with a role, not a person, so a policy stays owned even when the individual holding that role changes. The owner for each of the 47 policies is shown in the right-hand column of the policy table.
| Owner role | Typically covers |
|---|---|
| Board Chair | Governance, strategic direction, external communication, transparency |
| Board Secretary | Code of conduct, record-keeping of governance decisions |
| Board Treasurer | Financial integrity, procurement, banking, tax compliance |
| Ethics Focal Point | Anti-corruption, conflicts of interest, whistleblowing, policy development itself |
| Operations Liaison | Safeguarding, HR, day-to-day people policies |
| Standards & Accreditation Committee | Research ethics, data protection, IT, IP — anything touching standards content or delivery |
| Patient and Public Council | Complaints, grievance mechanisms, accountability to those ASF exists to serve |
| Independent Board Member | Internal audit and oversight, precisely because it must sit outside operational management |
Versioning and Review
Each policy carries an implicit review cycle: at minimum annually, or sooner following a change in French law, a serious incident, or a Board decision to revisit it. A policy change that touches any of the Seven Constitutional Protections requires the supermajority process described on that page, not a simple Board vote. Minor corrections — a name, a contact detail, a cross-reference — may be made by the Ethics Focal Point and reported to the next Board meeting rather than triggering a full review cycle.
How the Categories Relate
- Governance and integrity — who decides what, and how ASF stays honest with itself.
- Financial integrity — money in, money out, and the controls between them.
- Safeguarding and people — protection for everyone ASF’s work touches, staff included.
- Reporting and accountability — what happens when something goes wrong, and who hears about it.
- Information, safety and risk — data, physical safety, and continuity planning.
- Quality, science and communication — how ASF’s own output stays credible.
- Environment and donor requirements — obligations that come from outside ASF itself.
Where the Forms Are
Several policies reference a form or template — an acknowledgement to sign, a declaration to file, an incident to log. Those live together at Annexes and Forms, not repeated inside each policy.
Relationship to PHIG
This manual is aligned, category-for-category and policy-for-policy, with the equivalent manual published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia. The two differ only where French and Georgian law require it — see Governance and Policies for the full explanation.
