Global Fund makes its largest round of its grants so far

18 Nov 2008

Paul Chinnock

Source: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (see original article)

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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria* has approved 94 new grants worth US$2.75 billion over two years. It is the eighth time the Global Fund board has approved new proposals to support programmes fighting the three diseases and it is the largest round in the history of the organization, well over twice the size of any previous round. The decision was made in New Delhi, where the Global Fund held its board meeting. Round 8 now brings the Global Fund’s overall portfolio to US$ 14.4 billion in 140 countries.

Rajat Gupta, Chair of the Global Fund Board said, ‘These new resources will significantly help the world in achieving global targets such as universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention, and cutting the number of deaths from tuberculosis and malaria by half by 2015.’

Of the approved proposals, the majority of resources go to malaria programmes accounting for 51 percent. Proposals for AIDS and tuberculosis account for 38 percent and 11 percent, respectively, of the approved funding.

Ninety percent of the approved grants are for low-income countries, with the majority of resources (77 percent) for Africa and the Middle East. Asia and the Western Pacific will receive 14 percent of the newly approved funding, Latin America and the Caribbean 6 percent, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia 6 percent.

The Global Fund’s next funding round will be approved in November 2009.

In a separate development, also in New Delhi, the Friends of the Global Fund South- and West Asia has been launched to be a leading advocate for programmes supported by the Global Fund in the region. The new advocacy organization will also seek to help Global Fund recipient countries to get the best possible results from the grants that they receive. Its Board of Directors and Advisory Board include a number of leading regional business leaders, health experts and academics. Friends South- and West Asia is the latest such organization to be established since the Global Fund’s creation in 2002 and joins a network of associations around the world including the United States, Japan, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

* The Global Fund is a global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.