AFRO-NETS> Rich countries challenged to back new health fund

[Liz Dodd <lizdodd@stopaidscampaign.org.uk>]

Rich countries challenged to back new health fund
-------------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE 
29 January 2002 

Today at the first meeting of its new board in Geneva, the Global 
Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is expected to announce that it is 
open for business and will begin accepting proposals from developing 
countries immediately.[1] But the Stop AIDS Campaign[2] is concerned 
that the Fund may be profoundly compromised by under-funding. So far 
pledges to the Fund total only US$1.7 billion, with just $700 million 
available to be disbursed this year - well short of the $10 billion 
which is required annually to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic alone. 

Derek Bodell, Chair of the Stop AIDS Campaign said, "Bill Clinton re-
cently noted that tackling HIV/AIDS is 'not rocket science. It is 
about money, organisation and will.' To our shame, to date the inter-
national community has consistently failed to rise to this challenge. 
The launch of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria must pro-
vide the catalyst for action. The Stop AIDS Campaign is working to 
ensure that the UK and the wider international community urgently 
scale up their efforts to Stop AIDS. While the Fund should not be the 
only mechanism for dispersal of aid, it gives the world a focused op-
portunity to begin to tackle these killer diseases. Future genera-
tions will judge us harshly if proposals from countries, serious 
about fighting these epidemics, have to be turned down due to lack of 
resources." 

The Fund has set itself an ambitious goal. Rather than taking an ei-
ther/or approach, the Fund will consider proposals from countries  
which must be developed in partnership with civil society - for pre-
vention work, for health system support as well as for purchasing 
drugs  including anti-retroviral therapies which are widely used to 
manage HIV in rich countries. The Stop AIDS Campaign welcomes this 
remit, which aims to ensure that priorities are determined by the af-
fected countries themselves, rather than by donors or pharmaceutical 
companies. The approach reaffirms that prevention and treatment ef-
forts are mutually re-enforcing and that to be effective, these epi-
demics must be tackled on all fronts  including by making a wide 
range of drugs more available and strengthening the health systems to 
deliver them. But the Campaign warns that this ambitious remit re-
quires equally ambitious funding commitments.

This Stop AIDS Campaign also warns that this may be the first real 
test of whether the Doha declaration  which affirmed that interna-
tional patent law should be interpreted in a way that supports public 
health and access to medicines  has real power. The Campaign calls 
on the Fund to 'give Doha teeth' as well as ensuring cost-
effectiveness by declaring its commitment to fund the purchase of ge-
neric versions of patented drugs where appropriate. So far the Fund 
has expressed its determination to be 'consistent with international 
law and agreements, such as the recent Doha declaration, while en-
couraging efforts to make quality drugs and products available at the 
lowest possible prices for those in need'. 

HIV/AIDS is scheduled to surpass the Black Death as the worst pan-
demic ever, yet the amounts needed to make a real difference to the 
world's health are not huge. According to a recent report by the Har-
vard Economist, Jeffrey Sachs, eight million lives could be saved and 
$360 billion of economic benefits generated by 2015 for a mere $66 
billion. This is less than one tenth of one per cent of rich coun-
tries' earnings.[3] 

For more information contact:
Liz Dodd
Derek Bodell

New City Cloisters
196 Old Street 
London EC1V 9FR, UK
Tel: + 44-20-7253 5860 
Fax: + 44-20-7253 5861 
mailto:info@stopaidscampaign.org.uk
http://www.stopaidscampaign.org.uk


--
Notes:

[1] The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was established in 
June 2001, following a call from the United Nations Secretary-
General. The purpose of the Fund is to 'attract, manage and disburse 
additional resources' to fight these diseases. For more information 
see www.globalfund.atm.org 

[2] The Stop AIDS Campaign is a new initiative of the UK NGO AIDS 
Consortium involving 15 leading development and HIV/AIDS organisa-
tions. Members of the Stop AIDS Campaign are: Acord, Action Aid, Af-
rican HIV Policy Forum, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Diana Princess of Wales 
Memorial Fund, Elton John AIDS Foundation, HelpAge International, In-
ternational HIV/AIDS Alliance, National AIDS Trust, Oxfam, Save the 
Children UK, Tearfund, UNICEF UK and VSO. 

The Campaign is calling on the UK government to take an international 
lead in fighting the global HIV/AIDS epidemic  including by pledging 
a five-fold increase in resources devoted to tackling the crisis. The 
Campaign will also work with other groups to tackle critical issues 
such as the debt burden, which continues to divert vital resources 
away from health care, health systems and education, and the lack of 
affordable medicines to treat HIV/AIDS and the opportunistic infec-
tions it causes. 

[3] Report of the Commission for Macroeconomics and Health, presented 
to Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World Health Or-
ganisation by Jeffrey D. Sachs. 
For more information see:
http://www.cmhealth.org

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