Financial meltdown could hit funds for fighting HIV/AIDS
Updated
There are concerns that global financial crisis could make governments more cautious about spending the large sums necessary that are needed for fighting HIV/AIDS. The last ten years have seen a war declared on HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. But it's only been possible because rich nations have pledged vast sums of money. Now, the managers of the Global Fund say the combined US$600million in assistance to the Pacific and Indonesia is far from enough.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon, Finance Correspondent
Speakers: Dr Michel Kazatchkine, executive director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Dr Nafsiah Mboi, Secretary of the Indonesian National Aids Commission; Bill Bowtell, executive director, Pacific Friends of the Global Fund
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SNOWDON: The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB, and malaria has been hard at work since 2002.
It's been promised US$20billion from the Group of Eight rich nations along with the rest of Europe and Australia.
It's the largest fund for TB and Malaria control and the third biggest fighting AIDS. In Asia, it has US$3.5billion worth of projects.
Globally, it claims to have saved two and half million lives through medication, malaria prevention and the training of health professionals.
As impressive as the figures are it's still got a long way to go.
Dr Michel Kazatchkine is the executive director of the Global Fund, which is based in Geneva.
KAZATCHKINE: Our needs for the overall period for 2008 to 2010 I anticipate will be close to US$14billion and so far I've received pledges of about US$10billion. So we're talking about a very serious gap for year 2010.
SNOWDON: The period after that is also under a cloud and coincides with the deadline to meet the UN's millennium development goals.
KAZATCHKINE: Yes, of course, I'm very concerned. We know that there are precedents in terms of the other crisis. Funding for development has gone down. I do think, however, we are now in a slightly different context I don't think funding for development and health can be as soft as it used to be, that is could be the first thing a government can erase. Second by committing to supporting AIDS treatment, there is a sort of ethical mortgage for the developed world now towards the developing world.
SNOWDON: Indonesia and PNG are high priority for all three diseases. East Timor for TB and Malaria and for the prevention of HIV, which has low incidence at the moment.
In Indonesia, though, 270,000 is thought to be a conservative estimate of those living with AIDS.
The secretary of the National Aids Commission for Indonesia is Dr Nafsiah Mboi. She says in some provinces there is an AIDS epidemic and there's a great need for more testing and treatment.
MBOI: Again Indonesia is too big. But what we have done is coordinating much better, so that every single dollar will result in reversing the course of the epidemic. Now, it is 0.2 per cent nationally, but we want to stop it now, not five years from now.
SNOWDON: A new organisation has been launched to keep the issue in the minds of potential donors such as governments and companies and to assist those countries receiving grants.
A Pacific chapter for the Friends of the Global Fund will cover the islands, plus Indonesia.
Its executive director, Bill Bowtell from the Lowy Institute, says the global financial crisis will make raising new funding that much more difficult.
BOWTELL: I don't think there's any doubt this world financial catastrophe is going to make it very difficult for governments, for philanthropic organisations, and for companies to contemplate putting more money into these things.
SNOWDON: And the goals are ambitious. In PNG, where AIDS is spreading rapidly, the aim is to bring down the incidence of new AIDS cases by 50 per cent by 2012, and to ensure 100 per cent of AIDS patients around the world get the treatment they need.
Dr Michel Kazatchkine again:
KAZATCHKINE: We started from somewhere like no one on treatment six years ago to currently about an average of 40 per cent coverage of treatment needs in the developing world at large. This is why long term sustainable resources are so key to the Global Fund because AIDS treatment is a commitment for treatment for life.
