Sustainable development and the Global Fund

The challenges of sustainable development can only be addressed when supported by international partnerships. The Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS is one such example, a senior US government official said at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria were diseases that hindered development and they would be part of the US government's main focus at this week's summit, Global Fund Executive Board member and US health representative to the summit, Dr Anne Peterson, said at a press briefing.

"The Fund had an incredibly quick start-up and the challenge will be how to maintain this progress," Peterson said. With a pledge of US $500 million to the Fund, the US government was the leading donor and an "active participant" in the Fund's board meetings, she added.

Responding to criticism that the US was nevertheless not giving enough to the Fund, Peterson admitted that current needs exceeded government efforts. "Are we there yet? No. We still have a long way to go," she added.

The Fund had been successful in bringing together diverse partners to create its executive board. The first call for funding proposals had elicited an overwhelming response from countries, some of which had created national AIDS plans in line with Fund guidelines.

Peterson, however, warned that these were early successes and there was still a lot of work ahead. Country Coordinating Mechanisms had to ensure that they brought in all stakeholders and some countries still required technical support with their funding proposals.

"There are some policy issues that need to be looked at in the future," she added. For example during the first round, the Fund responded to sound proposals and did not distinguish by need. Several poorer countries had been left out of this process, as they were unable to produce sound proposals.

The South African government's earlier attempts to block a grant awarded by the Fund to the KwaZulu-Natal province, was another example of policy issues that still needed to be resolved, she said.