“HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria are still Emergencies”

23 Septebmer 2011. A statement from the Communities Living with HIV, Tuberculosis and affected by Malaria Delegation of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The Communities Living with HIV, Tuberculosis and affected by Malaria Delegation (Communities Delegation) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) welcomes the report of the High-Level Independent Review Panel (HLP) and acknowledges the recommendations put forth in strengthening fiduciary controls and oversight mechanisms at all levels of the Global Fund, which are consistent with its values of transparency and accountability.

The comprehensive findings of the HLP is a result of six months of intensive work, and includes the review of 40 existing grants with a conclusion that all current weaknesses are opportunities that can be strengthened and improved.  The Board of the Global Fund will meet on the 26th September 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland to review and discuss the findings and recommendations, act on the most urgent issues and agree on a process to address and action the recommendations.

The Communities Delegation is deeply concerned, however, on how some of the findings of the HLP can be misconstrued.  The Global Fund has committed US$ 22.4 billion in over 150 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment, care and support programmes against the three diseases.  This in practical terms translates to putting 3.2 million people on HIV treatment, treating 8.2 million people infected with Tuberculosis (TB), and 190 million bed-nets distributed to avert malaria infections.  Millions of lives have been saved, because of the work of the Global Fund and its partners, and this needs to be put into perspective.

During times of a massive financial crisis and instability in the biggest world economies, major Global Fund contributors could translate the outcomes of the report into excuses not to meet funding commitments.  The Global Fund needs the current and new donors to increase their contributions and pledges expressed at the Third Voluntary Replenishment Conference from US$ 11 billion to more than US$20 billion to ensure that efforts and gains made in the last decade can be effectively sustained.  The Global Fund is thus far, the only mechanism in existence that could invest these resources needed in life-saving interventions.  The report states, “the failure of the Global Fund would be a global health catastrophe”.

Currently, 15 million people living with HIV are in dire need to be on life-saving drugs; the case detection for TB globally is at 65%, with drug resistant TB spiralling faster; and malaria cases though contained might be at a risk of exploding if efforts are not preventive efforts are not sustained.  These are all emergencies that require immediate attention and extraordinary actions so as to benefit the very communities that we stand up for.

The Communities Delegation does not support the HLP suggestions to re-evaluate the Board decision on Round 11 funding, and proposals for new eligibility criteria.  The Board of the Global Fund needs to be able to discuss the impact, consequences and recommendations responsibly bearing in mind the tremendous ramifications these decision(s) will have on achieving MDGs 4, 5, and 6, and ultimately on the lives of communities.

Shared responsibility is at the core of partnerships, and the Global Fund is a unique funding mechanism andpartnership with an oversight and governance structure that includes multi-stakeholder participation at both global and national level.  The report provides a timely opportunity for both implementers and donors to not only make the money work, but also to demonstrate how it works.

We are dismayed with some disparaging and opportunistic public statements related to the leadership at the Global Fund Secretariat after the release of the HLP report, and would like to point out that the recent reappointment of the Executive Director proves the trust and confidence of the Board in his work.  The Communities Delegation has confidence in the leadership of the Executive Director, and would like to express our most sincere gratitude to staff at the Global Fund Secretariat for their tireless commitment and dedication to ensuring that lives are being saved across the three diseases.

The Communities Delegation reiterates its position of zero tolerance to corruption and the commitment to transparency and accountability.  We bring to the Global Fund Board the voices and needs of millions of people living with and affected by the three diseases, and together with the CivilSociety Constituencies on the Board of the Global Fund, we will remain vigilant to ensure that the most urgent changes in the structures, policies and processes of the Global Fund are implemented in order to continue saving lives.

We call for the responsible use of the public information released in the HLP report by media and governments and other partners, with a reminder that the challenges related to the three disease is an on-going emergency in many parts of the world.  We need to ensure that the recommendations of the Board, and its responses to these recommendations constantly place the lives of people at the centre of our discussions.

On behalf of the Communities Delegation,

Shaun Mellors
Board Member,
Communities Delegation
mellorsshaun@gmail.com

Lucy Chesire
Interim Alternate Board Member,
Communities Delegation
lucy@tbadvocacy.co.ke

Rachel Ong
Communications Focal Point,
Communities Delegation
rachel.ong.gfatm@gmail.com

Reception by Pacific Friends & The University of New South Wales

On Monday 22 August 2011, Pacific Friends of the Global Fund was pleased to welcome Dr Christoph Benn, Director of External Relations at the Global Fund, to Australia.

Dr Benn’s two day visit started with a busy schedule in Canberra, where he met with a wide range of politicians, policymakers and NGO representatives. Discussions focused mostly on the strained financial environment in which the Global Fund’s largest donors are struggling to continue their funding at the same level. One of the reasons the Global Fund’s External Relations Director visited the Asia-Pacific was to get emerging economies more engaged in development aid, but also specifically in health and the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The visit of Dr Benn coincided with the official reception to welcome Pacific Friends to the University of New South Wales on Tuesday 23 August at the UNSW campus in Kensington. Prior to the reception, Pacific Friends had invited key representatives from the academia, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to a round-table briefing with Christoph Benn. After a short presentation by Christoph on the present position of the Global Fun an interesting discussion ensued on the financial situation of the international community and the ramifications for the Global Fund.

The ensuing reception, hosted by Pacific Friends and the UNSW Foundation, to welcome Pacific Friends to UNSW as the new hosting institution was attended by close to a hundred people. In two short speeches by Bill Bowtell, Executive Director of Pacific Friends and Wendy McCarthy, Chair of Pacific Friends, the mission and purposes of Pacific Friends was outlined to the audience. Next Jennifer Bott, Chief Executive of the UNSW Foundation, welcomed Pacific Friends to UNSW. This was followed by Dr Christoph Benn who explained the nature of his work for the Global Fund and praised Pacific Friends for its successful support of the Global Fund. To conclude, Bill Whittaker thanked Dr Christoph Benn and Pauline Mazue from the Global Fund, Dianne Stewart and David Cook from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and the audience for the presence.

Strengthening Relationships

Executive Director of the Global Fund, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, visited Australia and New Zealand on 22-24 February to discuss the upcoming replenishment round of the Global Fund later this year. On Monday morning the 22nd Dr Kazatchkine met with Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance. After that Dr Kazatchkine was interviewed for two ABC radio programs, and he addressed meetings of the Parliamentary Liaison Group for HIV/AIDS, Blood Borne Viruses and STIs, and the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development. Later that day meetings took place with the Hon Julie Bishop, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Peter Baxter, Acting Director General of AusAID, and various AusAID officials to discuss the issues in Papua New Guinea. After an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Kazatchkine attended a high-level meeting with the executive officers of development NGOs.

On Tuesday the 23rd, after an early radio interview, Dr Kazatchkine met with Stephen Smith – Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, after which he made its way to Sydney where the Governor-General hosted a luncheon in Admiralty House.

At the end of the day the Global Fund delegation departed for Wellington where on Wednesday meetings had place at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. After a working lunch with NZAID staff the Global Fund Director attended a meeting at the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs where he met with Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Ms Dominica Abo, Temo Sasau, and the Hon Misa Telefoni.

The visit of the Global Fund’s Executive Director has strengthened its relationship with Australia and New Zealand, and hopefully paved the way for commitments of both countries in the upcoming replenishment round of the Fund later this year.

Bill & Melinda Gates: Impatient Optimists

Bill and Melinda Gates explained on 27 October 2009 why they are Impatient Optimists in a speech from Sidney Harmon Hall in Washington, D.C. screened live at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

The speech launches the Living Proof Project which highlights the extraordinary successes that have resulted from the greatly increased support of global public health programs by the United States government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Living Proof Project demonstrates that initiatives to fight malaria, AIDS, and other diseases are saving and improving the lives of millions of people in poor and developing countries – and as a result, empowering them to lead more productive lives. The launch of Living Proof comes at a time when the global financial crisis may impose severe constraints on the capacity of the United States and other traditional large donor countries to increase their development assistance and global health budgets. It is therefore a decisive and welcome intervention in the emerging public debate about the future funding and direction of development assistance that will have a significant impact not only in the United States but in Australia and globally.

Bill and Melinda are optimists since there have been some major improvements in global public health over the last decades due to the greatly increased support from the United States government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill showed that child mortality has gone down from 20 million deaths a year in 1960 to less than 9 million in 2008. Focusing on the world’s most killing diseases they presented some striking global facts: smallpox is eradicated, polio is reduced by 99%, measles by 93%, and in the fight against HIV and AIDS there is a significant increase in mothers that are on preventive drugs, while since 2004 some 190 million bednets have been delivered world wide to fight malaria.

Yet, Bill and Melinda are also impatient because so much more can be done, right now. Why are there still many people dying of malaria while the disease is preventable and treatable? Fortunately, as Bill said “we got great science and more resources”, and that is what makes them impatient optimists. The key message Bill and Melinda thus offered is that “spending on global health is the best investment we make for saving lives”.

In this important multimedia presentation, Bill and Melinda Gates personally addressed senior policy-makers and opinion leaders in Washington, DC and around the globe to highlight opportunities to build on global health successes, and to develop the main themes of the Living Proof project.

The Lowy Institute for International Policy enjoys a close relationship with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria within the Lowy Institute.

Supporting the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is imperative, and the Lowy Institute was therefore pleased to facilitate the direct screening of this influential presentation.

Watch the “Why We Are Impatient Optimists” presentation below:

“Good Neighbours Become Good Friends”

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lowy Institute for International Policy join influential Pacific regional leaders and others in fight against the three major pandemics in our region

The fight against the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria among Australia’s neighbouring countries is being boosted with the help of some good friends.

Leading business, community, political figures and medical experts have made a commitment to become ‘Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’.  To be launched on February 23 and chaired by Ms Wendy McCarthy AO, influential ‘Pacific Friends’ include Mr Andrew Forrest, Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, Ms Heather Ridout, Prof Tony Cunningham, Ms Lucy Turnbull, Mr Ian Clarke and more.

The launch will also announce that Australian sporting sensation, Matthew Mitcham OAM, has been invited to be the Pacific Friends’ Youth Ambassador. Last year at the Beijing Olympic Games Matthew won the Gold Medal in the Men’s 10m Platform Diving with the highest score ever awarded in Olympic history.

Pacific Friends was made possible by a grant of close to $US1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This diverse group will mobilise regional awareness of the serious threat posed by the three pandemics to societies and economies in the region. Pacific Friends will also mobilise support for the Geneva-based Global Fund that plays a vital role in resourcing effective country-based plans to reduce the impact and spread of the diseases.

Since 2002, the Global Fund has raised $US19 billion to be used against the three pandemics worldwide. Already, it provides a quarter of all international financing to combat HIV/AIDS, two-thirds for tuberculosis and three-quarters for malaria.

Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of Australia, will be the inaugural patron of Pacific Friends. She will join Global Fund Executive Director, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, in launching Pacific Friends in Sydney. The Governor-General has a deep interest in community-based responses to health challenges and especially in encouraging the role of women and girls in promoting healthier societies.

Pacific Friends joins similar organisations in Africa, the United States of America, Japan, Europe, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East as non-governmental advocates of the Global Fund. The inaugural Executive Director of Pacific Friends will be Mr Bill Bowtell, Director of the HIV/AIDS Project at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, where Pacific Friends will be based.

“The Global Fund benefits enormously from the work of Friends organisations, through their efforts to promote understanding and to mobilise regional support for our work in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said DrMichel Kazatchkine, the Global Fund’s Executive Director. “Pacific Friends of the Global Fund will no doubt be one of the strong voices communicating to donors the importance of financing the future of so many people living in the Pacific region.”

“The Global Fund is one of the best and kindest things people have ever done for one another,” said Dr Tachi Yamada, President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program.  “It is a fantastic vehicle for scaling up access to effective tools, and it has already helped prevent millions of unnecessary deaths.”

The Global Fund works with maximum transparency and its commitment to performance-based funding and local implementation has won the confidence of both public and private sector donors.

Pacific Friends is a new advocacy organisation founded in order to create awareness for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria across the Pacific region.  It aims to build political and financial support for the Global Fund’s fight against the three diseases.  Countries in our region receiving support from the Global Fund so far are Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The Global Fund is a not-for-profit organisation which provides a quarter of all international financing to combat HIV/AIDS, two-thirds for tuberculosis and three-quarters for malaria. The Global Fund, created in 2002, has committed more than US$15 billion in 140 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programs against the three diseases. Programs it supports are estimated to have averted more than 2.5 million deaths by providing HIV/AIDS treatment for 2 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 4.6 million people, and by distributing 70 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria worldwide – visit www.theglobalfund.org.