Africa needs to take urgent action to deal with the funding crisis of the Global Fund

by wchenglk2 on 2012-02-22 14:59:23

The International HIV / AIDS Alliance said that progress in many aspects is at risk of being overturned. Bilateral donors are required to fill the service gap. The Global Fund, which has made direct investment in 150 countries and regions, provides one fifth of the international funds for TB and malaria services and two-thirds of HIV services. The report says that the Global Fund plays an important role in linking health systems and social systems; the fund has been promoting human rights and leveraging the strong force of national impact, HIV coordinating mechanisms for people infected. The report says that these principles and methods are "universally welcomed" in the new Global Fund strategy 2012-2016, which aims to save 100,000 lives by 2016.

In the report, the Alliance also said that the Global Fund must have a more effective financial early warning system to ensure that when donation commitments are not met, they can raise the alarm. "We will never be in a position again where life-saving programs are canceled or delayed without an emergency plan and support for affected countries."

"We urgently need donors to complement the Global Fund and governments to strengthen their response to HIV/AIDS, www.bohuicn.com, and provide funding, or we will fail in our commitment to the weakest in our society and betray families. We face a collective responsibility and those affected by HIV around the world," said Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the Alliance in the report.

The Alliance also stated that governments must invest more in their own HIV responses; and bilateral donors must immediately take measures to fill the critical gaps in HIV services created by the Global Fund funding crisis.

The report, titled "Don't Stop Now: The Impact of Underfunding the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on the HIV Response," is available on the Alliance's website. This report is based on data from national Alliances' operations, including in-depth impact studies from five countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In November 2011, the Global Fund canceled Round 11 and said there would be no new grants until 2014. According to the Alliance's report, this news was like a major scientific breakthrough and signs of real progress beginning to emerge, creating the most widespread optimism in the history of the AIDS epidemic.

"Now," the report says, "all hopes of entering a new phase in responding to HIV have effectively been put on hold until at least 2014, and progress made in many areas may actually reverse. The impact on individuals and communities will be devastating."

"For donors and other stakeholders to reduce HIV responses, www.pethouse.cc, during economically difficult times is short-sighted and counterproductive," the report says. "While trillions of dollars have been found by governments to bail out reckless financial sectors, donors have left the Global Fund underfunded to save millions of lives. The Global Fund is the best mechanism to realize the possibility of a world without AIDS, but it can only do so with sufficient investment."

The report describes the impact of the funding crisis on individual countries. For example, in Bolivia, prevention activities will be disrupted for key populations such as men who have sex with men and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) populations, which are at the center of the country's HIV epidemic. Moreover, the opportunity to expand outreach work to other populations currently not accessing formal healthcare - such as prisoners, street youth, and indigenous peoples - will be lost. Finally, important survey programs providing insights into the HIV epidemic will be canceled.

The Alliance calls on donor countries to honor their existing commitments and increase their contributions, enabling the Global Fund to create a new fundraising opportunity with about $2 billion available in 2012. Specifically, the Alliance says that donors must accelerate delivery of their contributions, donors who have not yet made commitments, especially G20 countries, should do so; donors should urgently replenish funds before the International AIDS Conference hosted in July 2012; and donors should consider measures such as financial transaction taxes proposed by several countries to increase funding sources.

As a result of the Global Fund's funding crisis, the scale of the global response to HIV will be significantly impacted, and important existing services will be reduced or eliminated - unless urgent measures are taken. This is the central idea of the well-written and purely presented report issued by the International HIV / AIDS Alliance on January 24, 2012.

However, the report states that the cancellation of Round 11, combined with other measures taken by the Global Fund - such as strict rules for grant renewals - means that the fund will not be able to support any new HIV, TB, or malaria services. Moreover, the report states that HIV care and support programs, considered basic programs, will be interrupted because they are not seen as "essential" according to the rules of the Fund's Transitional Financing Mechanism (TFM). For the same reason, the report says that important advocacy and legal work combating stigma and discrimination, enabling people to access services, may lose funding; and social efforts to address many drivers of the epidemic - such as interventions focusing on protection, education, and gender equality - "will be abandoned halfway."