NetGuarantee, a new innovative finance facility, announces its first transaction with Zurich in North America, part of the Zurich Financial Services Group, to celebrate World Malaria Day today, April 25. This collaboration will help accelerate access to and advance the delivery of vital malaria prevention tools in Africa by six to 10 months, and shows how core business competencies and best practices can improve efficiencies in global health and save lives.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Welcomes Passage of 2011 U.S. Budget
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has welcomed passage of the continuing resolution for the Fiscal Year 2011 U.S. budget which contains a US$1.05 billion contribution to The Global Fund.
“I offer my sincere thanks to the U.S. on behalf of the millions of people around the world who benefit from resources channeled through The Global Fund. I am grateful to President Obama and the U.S. Congress for this vote of confidence in the Global Fund and for standing firm by U.S. commitments to global health despite significant pressure to reduce budget deficits,” said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of The Global Fund. “Tens of thousands of lives will be saved as a direct result of this budget. And I hope that it will inspire other countries to follow the lead of the United States.”
With total commitments of more than US$ 22 billion to grants in 145 countries, The Global Fund provides two thirds of all international funding to fight TB and malaria and supports programs providing AIDS treatment to more than half of all the people who need it in the developing world. The United States contributions make up nearly one third of the total commitments to the Global Fund.
During testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs last Thursday just hours before the vote in the House and the Senate, Dr. Christoph Benn, the Global Fund’s Director of External Relations and Partnerships, thanked the Obama Administration and Congress for their continued support leading to a bipartisan effort to protect international health funding despite the significant budgetary pressures.
“The Global Fund fully understands that these are difficult economic times and that hard choices have to be made,” Dr Benn told the committee. “However, the resources allocated to the Global Fund, as well as the U.S. bilateral programs PEPFAR and PMI, represent excellent value for money.” Dr. Benn made clear that with continued U.S. leadership, The Global Fund can leverage U.S. funding so we can “turn the corner on the three diseases and increase stability, growth and security around the globe.”
Source: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Global Fund Responds to News Stories About Corruption in Grant Spending
Officials from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are criticizing recent media reports of misuse of Global Fund grants. They say the reports are based on incidents that occurred and were acted on last year and contain no new revelations.
The media reports claim corruption is taking a big bite out of the billions of dollars of grant money disbursed by the Global Fund. And, they contend as much as two-thirds of some grants are used fraudulently.
The Fund’s Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine, says the Global Fund has zero tolerance for corruption and actively seeks to uncover any evidence of misuse of its funds.
He says the incidents referred to in recent media reports concern the grave misuse of funds in four of the 145 countries that receive grants. He says those cases figured prominently in last year’s Inspector General’s report.
“As a result, immediate steps were taken in Djibouti, in Mali, in Mauritania and in Zambia, to recover misappropriated funds and to prevent future misuse of grant money,” he said. “In total, the Global Fund is demanding the recovery of $34 million unaccounted for in these and other countries out of a total disbursement of $13 billion.”
Kazatchkine says criminal proceedings are underway in Mali, Mauritania and Zambia. He says the Fund has suspended relevant grants in Mali and Zambia and ended another grant in Mali.
Kazatchkine says transparency is a fundamental principle behind all of the work of his organization. He adds the Global Fund is fully accountable to its donors about all of its expenditures and is committed to preventing any misuse of its money.
”What is of concern to me, of course, is that this shakes beyond that a global public opinion somehow at a time when governments are under pressure to cut public expenditures and where millions of lives that depend on the Global Fund and the hope the Global Fund is bringing to the world could thus be at risk,” said Kazatchkine.
Kazatchkine says the lives of 4,000 people suffering from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are saved every day as a consequence of the grant money disbursed by the Fund.
He says the Fund and the Office of the Inspector General are strengthening efforts to prevent fraud. He says so-called higher risk countries are being closely monitored to make sure none of the money goes astray.
Source: VOA