AIDS activists call for more US support to Global Fund

AIDS activists have expressed concerns that the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been "undermined" by last month's proposal by President George W. Bush to triple US government bilateral spending on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Bush HIV/AIDS plan was a "tremendous victory" for the global movement to increase funding in Africa, but its major drawback was that not enough money was going to the Global Fund, David Bryden of the Global AIDS Alliance told PlusNews.

"The fact of the matter is that the Global Fund does not have enough money for proposals coming in this year and the [antiretroviral] treatment projects they are funding won't be sustainable without more money. This is very worrisome," Bryden said.

In his State of the Union address, Bush urged Congress to approve US $15 billion in funds to battle HIV/AIDS in the hardest-hit countries in Africa and the Caribbean over the next five years. Of this, US $1 billion would go to the Fund.

The discrepancy over the allocation of money could be attributed to the US desire for more control of multi-lateral bodies such as the Fund, Bryden said. "The best way they can control any funding for HIV/AIDS is to distribute it through US agencies."

However, spokeswoman for the US embassy in South Africa, Judy Moon, said Washington continued to support the Global Fund. "This is not the last or only money we are going to be providing," she told PlusNews.

"Throwing money" at the problem would not necessarily help HIV/AIDS efforts, as more than financing was required, she noted. Capacity-building, research projects and community outreach programmes also had to receive funding from the US government.

"The Global Fund is one of the places where one can go for funding. But it is not the only place," she said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan estimated in 2001 that US $7-10 billion a year was needed to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.