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May 28th, 2008 - 05:07:13 |
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Spotlight
Global Fund defends decision to deny funds to Zimbabwe
Masimba Biriwasha, Zimbabwe
An article from the HDN Key Correspondent Team
9 May 2008
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The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has defended its
decision to deny donor finance to Zimbabwe and has encouraged the
country to consider feedback provided by an independent panel of experts
when applying for the next round of funding.
The Global Fund is a nongovernmental organization bankrolled by
governments, international institutions and private donors. Its goal is
to select the best programmes for delivering treatment in regions such
as sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia and to finance those
programmes under supervision.
According to the International Herald Tribune (IHT), the Global Fund has
raised billions of dollars and has helped treat millions of people. But
the rejection of the request from Zimbabwe for funds to fight
tuberculosis (TB) in particular has been seen as a critical setback to
efforts aimed at addressing the spread of the disease in the country.
In response to online questions submitted by people from around the
world via the IHT, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global
Fund defended its position and said the organization had a good record
in Zimbabwe.
"The Global Fund feels a strong and heavy responsibility for the welfare
of the many people in Zimbabwe affected and infected by the three
diseases and continues to support the country's fight against them,"
Kazatchkine said.
"Paradoxically, given all the media criticism of us for not supporting
Zimbabwe, the Global Fund is the largest - and almost only remaining -
funder for health programmes," he said.
The Washington-based organization recently agreed to help pay the
salaries of Zimbabwean doctors and medical staff in a bid to stem the
massive brain-drain that has seen many qualified health professionals
leave the country.
With hyperinflation out of control and the public health sector
virtually crippled, there is little doubt that an injection of donor
funds could bolster local efforts against the spread of HIV, malaria and
TB in the country.
But the Global Fund has turned down five of Zimbabwe's seven funding
proposals to date, each time citing the technical shortcomings of the
proposals as the primary reason for the rejection.
The country's most recently rejected proposal sought funding to put in
place programmes to respond to the rising problem of TB but according to
Kazatchkine, it is the soundness of a country's approach and not the
issues themselves that determine the success of a proposal.
"Zimbabwe's proposals to the Global Fund in the last two funding rounds
have not been approved because the independent experts who review
proposals were not satisfied with the technical and scientific merit of
the country's proposals," said Kazatchkine.
He also denied allegations that the Global Fund was pursuing an agenda
to stem the flow of funding to the country and said those responsible
for drafting proposals at the country level should do more to make the
proposals sound and concrete.
"The Global Fund is . . . in no way reducing its support to the country.
The Global Fund strongly encourages Zimbabwe to use the feedback
provided by the independent panel of experts from the previous two years
and apply again for this year's financing round, which opened on 1
March," Kazatchkine said.
Zimbabwe has recorded some progress in the fight against the three
diseases - a key development the Global Fund can build on. The country
is the first in southern Africa to record a decline in HIV prevalence.
Zimbabwe has seen a steady decline in the number of HIV cases from more
than 26% of the population in 2001 to about 15% in 2006, according to
reports from the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS
(UNAIDS).
The limited funding that is finding its way into the country is mainly
directed towards programmes tackling HIV. But as HIV and TB are linked,
the absence of the funding, laboratory and diagnostic systems and
technical support needed to fight TB means that the disease is
threatening to unravel gains made against HIV.
The 2007 Global Tuberculosis Control Report by the World Health
Organization (WHO) ranked Zimbabwe among 22 countries with the highest
TB burden. TB has re-emerged as a leading killer in the country,
especially among people living with HIV and an estimated two thirds of
Zimbabweans with TB are also infected with HIV.
"Sources of support for civil society to undertake TB activities,
particularly for community-based interventions, are non-existent," said
Lindiwe Chaza-Jangira, executive director of the Zimbabwe AIDS Network
(ZAN).
"The movement of people within the [South African Development Community]
further threatens to increase [multi-drug resistant and extremely-drug
resistant TB] in the region, and for Zimbabwe this is made worse by a
weakened health system," Chaza-Jangira said.
According to Kazatchkine, the Global Fund's approach to health sector
financing is unique as it is based on country ownership, recipient
countries set their own priorities, design and implement their own
programmes and are accountable for what is achieved.
"The Global Fund bases its financing solely on performance. All funds
are released incrementally, based on demonstrated results against
targets we have jointly agreed with the countries," Kazatchkine said.
"While judgment, of course, always has to play some role, the system is
designed to prevent political or any other considerations from
influencing decisions on funding . . . Donors and beneficiaries are
equally represented on our board, contrasting with most financing
institutions for development."
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The KC Team is coordinated by Health & Development Networks (HDN).
Website: www.thecorrespondent.org Email:
info (at) thecorrespondent.org
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