Australia urged to do more for AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis
Updated
The head of the world's major funding source for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria treatments wants Australia to channel some of its promised increase in international aid through his organisation. The Global Fund was borne of the realisation in the late 1990's that health is intimately connected to development.
Professor Michel Kazatchkine is currently touring the world's capitals seeking renewed government pledges to build on an already impressive record and as well as looking to Australia to do more, he's hoping soon to get China to become not just recipient, but donor.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speaker: Professor Michel Kazatchkine, head of The Global Fund
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MOTTRAM: Kofi Annan, former U-N secretary general, called in 2001 for a sort of one stop international finance shop to fund treatment internationally of the three big epidemic diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Globally recognition had grown about the link between health and development. Soon The Global Fund was born. And in it's short existince, the Fund's record is impressive. Back then, no-one in the developing world was receiving aids treatments. Now 40 per cent of those with urgent needs for anti-retroviral drugs get them. The Fund's executive director is Professor Michel Kaztchkine.
KAZATCHKINE: So we move from zero to over four Million people on treatment in just five, six years. I can't believe this would, I think if we had to go through a bilateral system we would still be negotiating at the country level on the conditions of that support.
MOTTRAM: Overall, more than 12-Billion U-S dollars has been spent in 144 countries. But no-one is guaranteed of support, new or ongoing. The Global Fund is known for it's rigorously independent review process that turns down between 50 and 55 per cent of national applications for help. Papua New Guinea's HIV AIDS application last year was a case in point, rejected for not meeting the standards, though existing support for those receiving antiretrovirals has been negotiated. Others have funding frozen when there's evidence of malfeasance, as happened with a Philippines tropical diseases foundation recently. Professor Kazatchkine says upholding the Fund's standards is vital.
KAZATCHKINE: The credibility of the Global Fund is built on the fact that we only fund programs that come to us that are scientifically, medically, financially and programatically sound.
MOTTRAM: But first, there's got to be money to disburse. Professor Kazatchkine is in Canberra holding talks with ministers about boosting Australia's support, particularly given the Rudd government's commitment to increase foreign aid from point-three to point-five per cent of gross national income.
KAZATCHKINE: I really hope that that new money will somehow translate into increased contributions to the Global Fund. Currently Australia is somewhere around number 16 in the donors to the Global Fund and I believe it could do much better.
MOTTRAM: And that's especially the case with some countries indicating to The Global Fund that they're considering cuts to foreign aid budgets, in part because of the global financial and economic crises. Professor Kazatchkine though has some ideas on new ways to source funding and China, where one-point-five Billion dollars in Global Fund grants has radically improved the outlook for TB and HIV/AIDS, is in his sights.
KAZATCHKINE: I'm now asking China to change status from being a net recipient of our funds to being both a recipient and aid donor and that's also a call on all economies in transition as they're called. It's really something where I would see the G-20 engage in the next year.
MOTTRAM: If China agrees to the transition, it'll follow Russia which did so in 2007, deciding to reimburse Global Fund grants over time. Belarus is another country that may follow suit. But Professor Kazatchkine says for many country's there'll be no quick transition. And while he's optimistic that some Millenium Development health goals can be met .. nothing is certiain. For example, the HIV-AIDS goal is in question .. and in Asia, continued growth in HIV from intravenous drug use, or I-D-U is a problem.
KAZATCHKINE: There is still a growth of IDU-driven HIV infections in a number of countries in Asia. Of course in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, China and we know what to do.
MOTTRAM: Just like the world knows what to do about mother-to-child transmission of HIV, where prevention costs 15-US dollars per intervention, but still 400-thousand babies are born HIV-positive in Africa each year, compared to four a year Professor Kazatchkine's home country of France.
KAZATCHKINE: Of course I'm concerned around the MDG's we need more funding. What I'm saying is that we can now present to the world a set of results. We can now show impact on mortality, we can show real progress, we can show what the world can achieve when it comes together around a set of specific objectives. So let's do it.
