AFRO-NETS> US$ 623 M OKd in Disease Fight, Short of Fund's Target

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

US$ 623 M OKd in Disease Fight, Short of Fund's Target
------------------------------------------------------
 
Laurie Garrett
Newsday - October 17, 2003
Source:http://www.aegis.org/news/newsday/2003/ND031002.html
 
The board of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tu-
berculosis voted yesterday to send grants of $623 million to poor 
countries, a $246-million decrease from grants made earlier this 
year.
 
The vote came amid controversy about the U.S. commitment to 
fighting AIDS.
 
The Global Fund had set a target of $3 billion a year, and world 
leaders, including President George W. Bush and United Nations 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have declared tackling these dis-
eases a top priority. About 16,500 people die each day from the 
diseases, according to the World Health Organization.
 
This week the board of the Global Fund, chaired by U.S. Secretary 
of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, is meeting in Chiang 
Mai, Thailand, to review grant applications, the third round 
since the fund's inception just over two years ago. In a telecon-
ference yesterday, Thompson expressed pride in the funding and 
the role of the United States. Since its beginning, the Fund has 
"already given out $2.1 billion in 125 countries," he said. 
"Every time I look at these numbers, I become more impressed with 
how far we have come in two years."
 
In particular, he said, "I am very proud of my own country," 
which has contributed about "37 percent of all the Global Fund 
money."
 
But Richard Feacham, the fund's executive director, said in the 
briefing that the funding decision "falls well short of targets. 
In particular, well short of the target of 3 million people on 
treatment [for HIV] by 2005."
 
Sharonann Lynch of the Philadelphia-based Health Gap, a nonprofit 
group that works on behalf of access to medical care, said in an 
interview that this week's round adds only 176,000 AIDS patients 
to the treatment rolls.
 
"At this rate we will have 240,000 people on treatment by 2005, 
or 8 percent of the [United Nations] target," Lynch said. "... 
It's all slowing down because the donors aren't giving."
 
Lynch, Feacham and Thompson said that support from wealthy na-
tions had declined, and singled out Germany, Australia, Japan and 
the European Community for what Thompson labeled "stinginess."
 
Lynch and other activists said the Bush administration's separate 
program of AIDS funding to 14 selected nations competes with the 
Global Fund.
 
Thompson said Congress had voted to limit U.S. commitment to the 
Global Fund to 30 percent of total donations, so the Bush admini-
stration cannot give more to the Geneva-based organization unless 
other nations increase support. 

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