The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced its first round of grants. The announcement was made on 26 April, following the conclusion of the fund’s board meeting in New York between 22-24 April.
Over the next two years, $378 million will be provided to 40 programmes in 31 countries. HIV prevention and treatment initiatives are to receive 60% of the money, with over half going to programmes in Africa. In total 28 programmes will receive funding for HIV work; 21 of these will be given money to buy antiretroviral drugs.
The largest grants were made to South Africa ($25 million), Zambia (just under $20 million), China ($15 million) and $10 million each to Zimbabwe and Haiti.
An additional $238 million worth of fast-tracked cash is to be provided 18 proposals. The performance of all programmes receiving Global Fund cash will be evaluated after the first two years of funding, with the possibility existing of another three years of cash, which could amount to a Global Fund spend of $1.6 billion over five years.
The Global Fund is a public-private partnership and has so far raised $2.08 billion from governments, businesses, charitable foundations and individuals. The over 300 applications were received for funding in the first round of grant applications and a second call for funding proposals will be issued later this year.
In addition to the money given to hiv projects, 16% of the current round of grants will go to tb projects and 10% to those targeting malaria. both these diseases cause significant levels of illness and death amongst people infected with hiv.
Officials at the Global Fund are stressing that much more needs to be done. Board member Philippa Lawson said “The Global Fund has raised more than $2 billion in less than a year. This is a successful start, but the Fund needs far more resources to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria – millions of lives are at stake.” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has estimated that $7-10 billion is needed each year to fight HIV.