Posted on January 5, 2003

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The Year in Review: Global Fund to Fight AIDS Struggles to Gain Traction

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria — diseases responsible for killing nearly six million people a year, 10 percent of the world’s total and more than a third of annual deaths in Africa — seemed like an idea whose time had arrived when it was first proposed by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in the spring of 2001.

But with the world's attention diverted by the September 11 terrorist attacks, the ongoing hostilities in Israel and the West Bank, and the escalating crisis in Iraq, the Fund struggled to gain traction in 2002, collecting just $483 million of the more than $2 billion pledged to it by October and still needing an additional $150 million to fulfill commitments made in April in its initial round of grantmaking.

In January, the Fund announced the approval of its first request for proposals from countries hit hard by the epidemics, and by April had approved $378 million in grants, with the majority — 60 percent — earmarked for programs focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and another 15 percent going to programs fighting HIV/AIDS in combination with one or both of the other diseases. The Fund’s board also agreed to a fast-track process to funnel an additional $238 million to eighteen programs in twelve countries and three multi-country programs, and named Dr. Richard Feachem, founding director of the Institute for Global Health and a professor of international health at the University of California, as executive director.

But under pressure from the United States to set up an aid-delivery system independent of the United Nations and the World Bank, which had insisted on being consulted on project selection and implementation, the Fund failed to disburse any of the money, causing Major General Herman Lupogo, head of the Tanzanian Commission for AIDS, to remark: "We're now awaiting a reply from [Fund officials] as to when we can have these funds. We needed them yesterday."

To date, the Fund has received pledges totaling more than $2 billion from governments, private foundations, and corporations, including a multi-year, $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to Feachem, the Fund will need to raise at least $2 billion in 2003 and another $4.6 billion in 2004 to continue its work.

Related news:

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria Announces First Round of Grants (01/31/02)

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Short on Funds (03/08/02)

UN Global Fund Creates Panel to Review Funding Proposals (03/13/02)

Global Health Fund Awards $378 Million in Grants (4/26/02)

U.S. Objections Stall Global AIDS Fund Disbursements (08/17/02)

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria Issues New Appeal for Funding (10/15/02)

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria Encourages Poor Nations to Buy Generic Drugs (10/17/02)

GlaxoSmithKline Announces $1.5 Million African Malaria Partnership Grants (11/20/02)

Pfizer Foundation Announces New HIV/AIDS Initiatives (12/05/02)

Global Fund Committs $25 Million to Fight AIDS in Haiti (12/17/02)