GOOD NEWS FOR HEALTH : GLOBAL FUND FORECASTS $1.6 BILLION IN AVAILABLE FUNDS FOR 2012-2014

Date : 09 May 2012

Major Shift Reflects Strategic Choices by Board, Renewed Confidence

GLOBAL FUND PRESS RELEASE:

GENEVA – A new financial forecast by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria estimates that more than $1.6 billion in additional funding will be available in the 2012-14 period for investment in projects that save lives.

The new forecast is a result of strategic decisions made by the Board, freeing up funds that can be invested in countries where there is the most pressing demand, and adopting a plan to transform the Global Fund that has created multiple positive effects, including improved financial supervision and overall efficiency. Like any forecast, it is subject to fluctuation and change in coming months.

“This forecast is better than expected, and it comes from the fantastic response we are getting to our transformation,” said Gabriel Jaramillo, who became General Manager of the Global Fund in February, 2012. “But we need more to get the job done. Countries that implement our grants are saving more and more people, but demand for services is still enormous. With more money, we can save more lives.”

On 10 May, Mr. Jaramillo will report to the Board of the Global Fund on a sweeping reorganization, focusing on the core business of grant management by significantly increasing the number of staff working in that area while streamlining staffing in supporting departments and taking steps to radically improve management.

Renewed confidence in the effectiveness of the Global Fund has led to new donations from some countries, and accelerated donations from others. Still others volunteered to forgo some funds in favor of less fortunate nations that have more pressing needs.

A first portion of the available funding can be put to work as soon as up to $616 million in grant requests are reviewed by the Technical Review Panel and then approved by the Board. Investing the additional $1 billion most effectively will be the subject of consultations with countries and partners.

The enhanced forecast will enable the organization to accelerate funding in a more continuous and effective way to support a more rapid implementation of the Global Fund’s new 2012-2016 Strategy.

“By getting ourselves onto a sound financial footing and transforming the way we do business, we can now accelerate funding and we can make significant progress towards the Millennium Development Goals,” said Simon Bland, Chairman of the Board of the Global Fund. “If we continue to get the support we need, we can make an enormous difference.”

Health Financing Meeting Press Conference – Today 1pm – Protea Hotel, Sea Point

March 22, 2012 (Cape Town) – This week, activists working in health (HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria) from all over Africa convened to tackle some of the difficult issues facing Africa’s health landscape, with a goal to develop strategies and action steps following the Global Fund’s cancellation of Round 11. The Global Fund’s announcement that it would not be funding new grants till 2014 created a growing concern about how organizations on the ground will be able to offer adequate health services in a region which is struggling to keep these life-threatening diseases under control. Furthermore, the decision comes at a time when increased investment could actually help Africa see a significant decrease (a sea change even) in the threat of these diseases, while a reduction in health funding (at this critical period) could lead to a fast reversal of the gains made over the past decade.

The Global Fund was amongst the participants at this meeting. The discussions were deep and solution-oriented. A significant amount of time was given to breakout working groups where there was a focus by one group on how to replenish the Global Fund by June of this year, while the other two groups focused on strategies and actions for how to increase domestic support of and accountability in health by African governments. Government Corruption, Prevention as Treatment, Accountability (of donor countries, Global Fund, African governments, and NGOs), Strategies for Replenishing the Global Fund in the Short-Term, and Resource Mobilization were amongst the topics discussed.

A number of innovative ideas and actions came out of these discussions – these OUTCOMES will be presented at today’s press conference.

This week’s health financing meeting also set the stage for a new way of looking at health and health financing in Africa. Integration was a key topic as HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria activists talked about how to “hunt in a pack” and advocate jointly from a common platform so as to compliment and not compete with each other. One participant reminded the group of the tragedy of saving someone from one disease just so they can die from another. Discussions also looked at regional versus country-based activism and coordination, and also about the need to develop country-based health strategies while still coordinating region-wide.

Much time was spent discussing integration and coordination of health efforts (across diseases) so as to create efficiencies, better health management, stronger health baselines and an overall holistic approach to disease prevention and management.

The press release (below) gives more information about the meeting and participants. Please also go to http://www.who.int/research/en/ http://www.rbm.who.int/ http://www.stoptb.org/resources/ and http://www.unaids.org for statistics on the diseases and prevention/treatment results.

The following is a brief outline of today’s HEALTH FINANCING press conference:

Moderator:

Daniel Molokele, Civil Society Coordinator for the Southern Africa Regional Programme on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics (SARPAM)

Panelists:

Jefter Mxotshwa, Executive Director, Network of African People Living With HIV/AIDS – Southern Africa Region (NAPSAR)

Discussing the State of HIV/AIDS & HIV/AIDS Financing in Africa, Impact of Global Fund Cuts on HIV/AIDS, Domestic Financing Models in Kenya, National Health Insurance in Africa

Lucy Chesire, Executive Director, TB ACTION Group

Discussing the State of TB & TB Financing in Africa, XDR TB in South Africa and Challenges Around Community Systems

Ntombozuko Kraai, TB Survivor and HIV/AIDS Activist

Sharing A Personal Story of How Access to Treatment Saved Her Life and What That Meant for Her, Her Family and Her Community*

Edward Mwangi Wangenya, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya NGOs Alliance Against Malaria (KeNAAM)

Discussing the State of Malaria (including childhood mortality) & Malaria Financing in Africa, Sustainability Issues, Drug Resistance in the Context of Unpredictable Funding and Inconsistent Coverage in Treatment

Linda Mafu, Executive Director, World AIDS Campaign

Sharing the OUTCOMES of the Health Financing Meeting This Week – Strategies and Action Steps Developed by Coalition of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Activists Including Innovative Ideas Proposed and Next Steps to Put Pressure on Both African Governments and Donor Countries to Fill the Global Fund Budget Shortfall and the Future of Integrated Advocacy/Health Networks in Africa.

*Saturday March 24, 2012 is World TB Day

Media Contact:                                                                               

Czerina Patel

Health Financing Communications Officer

WORLD AIDS CAMPAIGN

+27-79-867-4439

yenza@yenza.org

Innocent Laison on Cameroon HIV Activist Arrests [Health Financing Meeting]

Innocent Liason tells the health financing group that we have to come up with a plan to assist Foguito and other Cameroon colleagues from Positive Generation who were arrested for protesting the failure of Cameroon to meet its obligations of the Abuja Declaration (15% contribution to Health). They were released but now have a court date to defend their advocacy actions.

 

Panelist at HEALTH FINANCING MEETING talks about Zimbabwean Govt’s failure to put money to health

Discussion on Global Fund vs National Commitments – Burkina Faso

Simon Kabore from RAME says Global Fund gave its 30% but Burkina Faso government did not put up its share:

[Video uploaded by World AIDS Campaign]

HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria activists hold emergency meeting ahead of World TB Day as global leaders bail out banks but block progress in combating life-threatening diseases by not paying what they have promised

 

(Cape Town, March 19, 2012) – For decades Africa has been ravaged by its three most life-threatening diseases: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria. The “deadly trio” takes the lives of millions of Africans every year, but instead of focusing on these ruthless diseases, many African governments are spending their budgets on guns or exorbitant political salaries, while failing to fulfill their promises to protect their citizens by investing in health and in providing medical prevention and treatment – the weapons that are needed the most.

 

“Where is the money?” asked hundreds of activists at the December 2011 International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia through demonstrations, speeches and a petition handed over to the African Union.

 

There are approximately 46 million people living in the world with HIV or TB and more than 200 million cases of malaria annually. The Abuja Declaration adopted in April 2001 by African leaders declared the response to HIV/AIDS, TB and other related infections as the highest priority issue in their respective national development plans, committing 15% of their national budgetary allocations to health. Now, 11 years down the line only a handful of countries have achieved this target, with the regional average remaining at 7%, and much of this amount actually coming from international donor countries.

 

In addition to African governments neglecting their commitments, some countries including Italy, Spain, and Ireland have also failed to pay in their pledges to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), which provides about two-thirds of total international funding for TB and malaria services, and one-fifth for HIV services. The Global Fund‘s recent announcement to cancel Round 11 funding due to unfulfilled pledges and budget shortfalls came as a crippling blow to Africa’s health sector. Amongst other things, it means that the Global Fund will not fund the expansion of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria programmes until 2014.

 

It was largely due to the impact of the Global Fund’s significant contribution to fighting these diseases over the past decade that the HIV sector recently became more optimistic than ever about achieving a world with no new infections and no more AIDS or HIV-TB deaths.  Not only had new HIV infections dropped to their lowest levels since 1997, but breakthrough new scientific research¹ shows that providing early antiretroviral therapy (ART) to an HIV infected person can reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner by 96%.

 

“The new research suggests that if we invest more in treatment, we not only save the lives of those living with HIV, but we also prevent new infections by almost eliminating transmission,” says Rosemary Mburu, the Regional Civil Society Platform Coordinator of the World Aids Campaign. “We can actually now envision a world where HIV is no longer the enormous threat it is today, but in order to do so, we need increased investment now.”

 

To reduce funding for the HIV response in difficult economic times is short-sighted and counterproductive and will put the world in a position where the financial burden of disease gets exponentially heavier instead of lighter. Last week at the 4^th Interagency Meeting on Coordination and Harmonization of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) Strategies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, global health experts said the Global Fund decision on Round 11 “represents a setback, particularly because it comes at a time when countries were planning [to] scale-up case detection with new rapid diagnostics, [to] intensify efforts on addressing HIV associated TB and  [to] expand capacity to treat drug resistant TB.”

 

When we invest in health, we see we can overcome these life-threatening diseases. Just last week, it was announced that South Africa has successfully treated three patients with extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB at the Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital, the first three such success stories related to XDR TB in South Africa. Rates of new HIV infections have also decreased by 50% in South Africa.

 

Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% since 2000 due to a massive scale up of mosquito nets and indoor spraying, increased access to diagnosis and effective treatment, as well as research and activism around policy issues such as the banning of oral artemisinin-based monotherapies to prevent the spread of drug resistant malaria.

 

Still, an estimated 6 million South Africans are living with HIV, and TB is responsible for 60% of HIV related deaths in Kenya. Someone in the world is infected with TB every second and people living with HIV are about 37 times more likely to develop TB than people free of HIV infection. In Cameroon, 60% of pregnant women suffer from malaria and 35% of all deaths of children under 5 is due to malaria. Between four to five million deaths occur annually around the world as a result of the deadly trio. This is not just a number. It’s millions of lives, and millions of children left without parents or children themselves dying.

 

Unless the global community commits an additional $2 billion now towards the Global Fund, people who contract these diseases will be turned away from life-saving treatment. Preventingtransmission of HIV (through treatment (ARTs) as well as other prevention mechanisms including condom use) is essential to reducing rates of TB illness and deaths.

In this health environment, pulling dollars means pushing death. It is for this reason that this week’s emergency meeting to coordinate activist efforts around health financing has been called with the goal to develop a unified voice around the three greatest threats to the health of African people. The activists will develop an emergency action plan to put pressure on domestic governments and international donor countries to close the budget shortfall and put people first by investing $2 billion by July of this year and will simultaneously push for innovative initiatives such as special levies and a financial transaction tax (FTT) to ensure that health is given the investment it deserves.

 

It is not common for HIV, TB and Malaria organizations to come together, but the threat these three diseases are posing to the African continent and the danger of not having the responses properly funded is so large that it is essential to collaborate, build solidarity and strategize together to ensure both donor and African governments properly fund the health response.

 

Activists from across the African continent will attend this meeting, convened by AfriCASO, Aids Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), The Eastern Africa National Networks of AIDS Service Organisations (EANNASO), The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the World Aids Campaign (WAC). UNAIDS, Global Fund, International Civil Society Support (ICSS), Open Society Foundations, Stop TB NOW, The Roll Back Malaria Campaign and RESULTS will also participate.

 

While the emergency meeting is happening in Cape Town, South Africa, hundreds of activists will participate in a march and memorandum handover on Thursday March 22^nd in Johannesburg to demand that international donor countries do more to replenish the Global Fund and close the health financing gap left by the failure of governments to fulfill their pledges to health. This week the world also recognizes World TB Day (March 24^th), with a “Stop TB in My Lifetime” campaign.

 

Global leaders must commit now to invest in research, treatment and prevention of these diseases, which cumulatively affect more than 200 million people in a year. Globally, we have been making progress educating citizens around health: testing for diseases, removing stigmas, and assuring them that once diagnosed, they can be treated and survive, but if the Global Fund stops funding new treatments and African governments fail to do their part as well, then this is no longer true, and for millions of people, disease will mean death.  ###

 

^{1 The HIV Prevention Trials Network study (HPTN 052) was named Top Scientific Breakthrough by Science Magazine in December 2011.}

Meeting Details

Tuesday March 20 (9am) – Thursday March 22 (2:30pm), 2012

Press Conference 1pm Thursday March 22, 2012

[Suite 7, Protea Hotel]  ] – Park at hotel (tell them you are here for World AIDS Campaign conference)

All of the above will take place at the Protea Hotel (Corner Main & Arthurs Road, Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa – entrance on Arthurs)

Panelists on the press conference will include activists from all over Africa who will give an overview of the state of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa, and also discuss what the impact of not closing the funding gap would be to each of these diseases and to health overall. In addition, the outcomes of this week’s health financing meeting will be shared with the media. One panelist will also speak about their personal experiences surviving TB. More details on the panelists will be sent to the press upon request.

Johannesburg Protest March & Memorandum Handover

Thursday March 22, 2012, 11:30am

1 Sandton Drive, Johannesburg, South Africa

Participants: Over 1,000 southern African activists & representatives of the Treatment Action Campaign, Médecins Sans Frontières South Africa, World Aids Campaign, Aids Rights Alliance of Southern Africa, He-Tic, Médecins Sans Frontières Swaziland, and Section27.

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Contact                                                            Press Conference Details
Czerina Patel                                                   Thursday, March 22, 1pm
Health Financing Communications Officer  Suite 7
WORLD AIDS CAMPAIGN                               Protea Hotel
+ 27 21 487 3010                                             Corner Main/Arthurs Roads
+27-79-867-4439                                           Sea Point, Cape Town
yenza@yenza.org                                          + 27-21-434-3344
                                                                            
                                                                           

ENERGIZING ICASA2011 WITH A MESSAGE THAT RESONATES DEEPLY – WHERE IS THE MONEY FOR HIV/AIDS & HEALTH?

The Campaign for HIV & Health Financing kicks off ICASA2011 with a procession through the conference venue that energizes conference goers and emphasizes the key message coming out of this conference – that FINANCING for HIV/AIDS & Health is in a state of emergency and needs donors and especially African governments to STEP UP funding and commitment to HIV/AIDS in this make it or break it moment in the fight against the epidemic! 

ICASA Press Conference – Tues 10am – Journalists please attend

The Campaign for HIV & Health Financing, comprised of nearly 50 HIV/AIDS organizations working in Africa will be having a Press Conference at the Media Center on Tuesday at 10am. We hope that journalists here at ICASA will attend to hear about our framework strategies for financing around HIV/AIDS & Health in Africa.

Moderator: Rosemary Mburu, WAC

Panelists:

James Kamau- KETAM

Joniah Williams- EANNASO

Lynette Mabote – ARASA

Jeffer Moxtshwa – NAPSAR/AFRICA ROAD MAP

Sign onto our petition to support an up-scale in Africa’s commitment to HIV/AIDS & Health

Please sign: African Govts must invest domestic resources in Health & HIV  http://preview.tinyurl.com/clcrqsz

ICASA 2011

We are at the Millenium Conference Center having meetings with our colleagues from partner organizations who have come in to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from all over the world. We are talking about our strategies for our AFRICA HIV/AIDS & HEALTH FINANCING Campaign. Tonight is the Opening Ceremony of the ICASA Conference. George W. Bush, former President of the United States is one of the opening speakers. Security is quite a mission. Our registration goodie bags (well, most of them anyway) include a little silk-like CONDOMIZE pouch including condoms, a female condom and a DVD with everything one needs to know about condoms.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for our campaign. Some of the  plenary speakers will be talking about our message that African governments need to scale up their commitment to health & HIV  – OWN, SCALE UP AND SUSTAIN is our message and the theme of this year’s ICASA conference!

Tomorrow/Monday we will be in our “WHERE IS THE MONEY?” t-shirts handing out fliers and collecting signatures for the petition that we will present to the AU during the ICASA Conference. We have come with thousands of fact sheets and fliers, banners, posters and “WHERE IS THE MONEY FOR HIV AND AIDS?” stickers! On Tuesday, we will be having a press conference at 10am at the media center. We hope journalists here at ICASA will join us!