AFRO-NETS> Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Mon, 19 Nov 2001

[Cecilia Snyder <csnyder@ccmc.org>]

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Mon, 19 Nov 2001
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Secretariat Overseeing Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 
Malaria to Begin Talks

The board of advisers that will oversee the operation of the Global 
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a U.N.-backed fund that 
aims to collect $7 billion to $10 billion dollars a year to fight the 
three diseases in the developing world, on Thursday will begin talks 
in Brussels, as they try to meet a deadline to have the fund opera-
tional by the first of the year, the Boston Globe reports. Although 
operations are scheduled to start early next year, it does not appear 
likely that the first grants will be administered until some time 
next spring, more than a year after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
proposed the fund, because of "bureaucratic entanglements" and con-
flicting donor wishes. Planning has also been slowed by Japan's and 
the European Union's insistence that the secretariat work out of 
Brussels, away from the U.N. campus in Geneva, where organizers had 
planned to establish offices, the Globe reports. 

Working Through 'Contentious' Issues

The secretariat, headed by former Ugandan health minister Crispus Ki-
yonga, must address several "contentious" issues before the fund can 
be operational. The board has not yet determined whether nongovern-
mental groups will have any input in the fund's operation or whether 
the fund's operations will be carried out in public. Most of the 
meetings thus far have been carried out in private with little input 
from NGOs and other groups "on the front lines." One NGO consultation 
meeting was held in Brussels on Nov. 12, but groups were given just 
three working days notice, not enough time to obtain the visas to at-
tend the meeting. The Globe reports that it is also unclear whether 
the money in the fund -- about $2.5 billion -- will be distributed 
only to governments and how the money can be spent. Speaking earlier 
this month in Washington, D.C., Kiyonga said he did not know "why the 
world wants us to run so fast," calling the expectations to have the 
fund up and running by the end of the year "unrealistic." 

The Impact of Sept. 11

Donations to the fund have also dropped off since the Sept. 11 at-
tacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. From June to Sept. 
11, the fund received $1.5 billion in donations, including $200 mil-
lion from the United States. From Sept. 11 to today, only $2,000 has 
been contributed to the fund. During that same period, an estimated 
1,020,000 people worldwide have died of AIDS, malaria or TB, the 
Globe reports. The drop in donations has led Congress to call for an 
increase of the U.S. contribution to $1 billion with an emergency ap-
propriation. Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.) said, "Since Sept. 11, our 
focus has been on security, but this is about security. It's security 
for the United States, it's security in the world." She noted that 
the U.S. government has been appropriating billions of dollars to 
shore up national security in the wake of Sept. 11, and "another $1 
billion to help eradicate and prevent these crippling diseases is 
cost-effective." Leaders in the developing world have also criticized 
the drop in donations. At a meeting last week to discuss the fund in 
Malawi, Justin Malewezi, the country's vice president, said that the 
decrease was "as incomprehensible as it is immoral," noting that 10 
people died of the three diseases every minute. "It is scandalous be-
cause we have the knowledge, the technology and the resources to ad-
dress the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but 
we have not yet mobilized sufficient political will.... Without seri-
ous action now, tens of millions more will die. Every single death is 
an indictment on our consciences," he added (Donnelly, Boston Globe, 
11/18).

--
The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, 
a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National 
Journal Group Inc. c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser 
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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