Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Poorer Countries Press for Changes to AIDS Fund - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum Poorer Countries Press for Changes to AIDS Fund
By Richard Waddington
Reuters
May 15, 2002Several developing countries on Wednesday urged changes to the newly launched Global Fund against AIDS malaria and tuberculosis to give states with most sufferers more of a voice in its workings.
In speeches to the World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organisation (WHO), some states also voiced concern that the flow of cash to the Fund could falter after the initial burst of donations.
The Fund, first proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001 to combat the killer diseases, was formally launched early this year with a war chest of over $2 billion in cash and pledges, mainly from the United States and Europe.
Annan has said that more than $7 billion will be needed annually to halt the spread of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, which together kill over 6 million people a year, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
"It is a good start but the doubt is about whether it is sustainable," Mozambique's representative warned the health organisation's 191 member states gathered in Geneva for the week-long session.
Apart from AIDS, the meeting of ministers and health officials is also addressing issues ranging from the risk of the deliberate use of biological weapons by extremist groups to access to medicines in poor states. But in a special debate on the Global Fund, a number of countries, including China and Iran, said that the WHO should have a greater role in the operating of the Fund which was set up as an independent entity with no link to the UN.
Diplomats and observers said this was done because many rich donor countries, including the United States, feared that the Fund could become embroiled in UN bureaucracy.
AFRICA IN FRONTLINE
Some countries, such as Botswana, also argued for Africa to be given more of a say in the working of the Fund because it was in the frontline of the fight against AIDS.
"We recommend that Africa's representation on the board, committees, be reviewed to make sure that it is in proportion to the burden of the disease," the country's representative said.
The Fund's 18-strong executive board is made up of seven representatives each from developing and developed states, two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and two from corporate donors.
Despite having one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, Botswana failed to win any financing when the Fund announced in April its first grants for individual country projects to fight the three scourges.
Botswana said that states, particularly the poorest, did not have enough time to put together the kind of project that the Fund required. "It is critical that guidelines should be more user-friendly," its representative said.
More Information on UN Finance
More General Articles on UN Finance
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
