Global Fund: Grant Negotiations Begin with Initial Countries

[Guest guest]

6 October 2002, 18:00 EST

PRIVATE SECTOR ENLISTED TO ENSURE

AIDS, TB AND MALARIA FUNDS ARE EFFECTIVELY SPENT

Subject: The Global Fund - Montreal press release

Dear Colleagues,

For your information, please find attached a press release issued by

The Global Fund at the Montreal 33rd World Conference on Lung Health

& 3rd Stop TB DOTS expansion working group meeting.

Kind regards,

" ce Vercammen " <ce.Vercammen@...>

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Global Fund Unveils New System: To Improve Financial Accountability

Grant Negotiations Begin with Initial Countries

MONTREAL – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria released

plans today for a bold new system that will use private sector firms

to increase oversight of how donor money is spent.

Auditing firms, such as KPMG, Crown Agents and Pricewaterhouse

have been contracted to speed up the initial release of funds by

decreasing front-end bureaucracy and paperwork, while tightening the

monitoring of program effectiveness.

" The epidemics demand that we stop going about business as usual, "

said Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund. " The

Global Fund is working together with donors to create a new

generation of systems for a more comprehensive world response to

diseases of poverty. "

The announcement was made at the opening session of the IUATLD World

Congress on Lung Health, a prominent annual meeting of tuberculosis

specialists from around the world.

The new system will standardize and simplify procedures required to

quickly disburse funds, while establishing robust and reliable

systems for monitoring of financial and programmatic accountability.

Assessors, called Local Fund Agents, will determine the degree of

readiness, both financially and programmatically, of the grantees

receiving money from the Global Fund. The Local Fund Agents will

also assure responsible disbursements and monitor program success.

The Local Fund Agents are being selected based on their independence

from those receiving funds, their expertise with financial and

programmatic management, and the quality and expertise of their in-

country local staff members. To date, all Local Fund Agents have

been selected from the private sector.

Tanzania, with its recent history of innovative health care, is

scheduled to be one of the first countries to receive money from the

new Global Fund. Discussions are continuing this week to establish

the new assessment and reporting process and finalize the dispersal

of $17.4 million over two years to control HIV/AIDS and malaria.

" Over a decade ago, Tanzania broke similar ground in improving the

accountability of health programs by developing the DOTS tuberculosis

control strategy, " said Feachem. " DOTS has made health workers more

accountable for the cure of their patients and programs more rigorous

in reporting their progress in controlling the disease. We all stand

to benefit greatly if we can take what we have learned about quality

control from the DOTS work in Tanzania and apply these lessons toward

improving the quality of our financial systems. "

Sri Lanka will be another initial country to put the monitoring

system in place. The Global Fund awarded $6.6 million over five

years to support Sri Lanka's efforts to control TB. The money will

extend DOTS treatment services in under-served areas, making use of

NGOs and the private sector.

" Donor investments have already helped countries such as Tanzania and

Sri Lanka fight tuberculosis. They have achieved impressive results

but the fight has just begun, " said Feachem. " The Global Fund will

bring substantially more funds to these countries to scale up these

successes. "

According to Feachem, donor support has already helped countries

extend the DOTS strategy to reach nearly one million TB patients each

year. It is estimated that TB patients being treated through DOTS

services are twice as likely to be cured of the disease, than by

clinics not using DOTS. In India and Peru, DOTS has succeeded in

cutting TB deaths seven-fold. Nepal and China have cut TB deaths in

half where the DOTS strategy has been used.

" Additional financial support is required to provide DOTS more

widely, " said Feachem. " There are effective interventions for the

treatment and control of malaria and HIV/AIDS that also need to be

taken to scale. The Global Fund is committed to making sure every

dollar spent on AIDS, TB and malaria has maximum impact. "

" With DOTS, we have an effective strategy for controlling TB, a track

record of getting results, and a global plan to rapidly expand these

services, " said Dr Nils Billo, executive director of the

International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, which sponsored the

tuberculosis conference. " The Global Fund has now created a better

system to ensure donor funds can be better accounted for. We hope

that the required funds to now massively scale up the fight against

AIDS, TB and malaria are soon forthcoming. "

# # #

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is an independent,

public-private partnership working to attract, manage and disburse

new resources to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to rapidly

disburse these funds to effective prevention and treatment programmes

in countries with greatest need.

For additional information, please contact Jim Palmer at +1 202 262

9823 or Anil Soni at +41 79 477 8772

___________________________

ce Vercammen

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

External Relations

Tour Casaï

18 Avenue Louis-Casaï

CH - 1209 Geneva

T. +41 22 747 77 80

F. +41 22 747 76 47

E-mail: <ce.Vercammen@...>

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