|
U.S. Suggests AIDS Fund Delay Grants
By MARC LACEY
The
New York Times
November 17, 2004
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 16 - The Bush administration says that
because too little money is coming into the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and too little is
being disbursed and spent, that the three-year-old program
ought to take a break from issuing grants.
A decision on the postponement will be made later this week
in Arusha, Tanzania, where the Global Fund's board is
meeting. Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and
human services and the current chairman of the fund, is
pushing for a delay in giving a fifth round of grants.
"Let's get the financial house in order before we make new
obligations," said an official of the Bush administration,
which some activists pressing for more money to fight AIDS
say prefers to direct American taxpayer dollars to its own
program to fight AIDS, the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief, than to the Global Fund, which was founded by
the United Nations.
Those critics say that the American position will cost
lives, and that delaying the grants will take pressure off
donor countries to step up their giving. In the previous
round, they said, the donors did not begin to commit money
until after the grant process was well under way.
Some are more critical of the West in general than of the
United States. "The West has been negligent in supporting
the resources to treat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and
if round five is canceled, it would be kicking Africa when
it is already down," said Stephen Lewis, the United Nations
special envoy on AIDS.
The Global Fund has doled out $3 billion to about 120
countries since its founding in 2002. But the fund, which
was set up to pool the resources of governments and private
donors for a coordinated battle against the three diseases,
has found itself seriously short of its financial goals.
The fund had been set to solicit proposals for new programs
in June, but an unexpectedly small flow of contributions
prompted a six-month delay. The American delegation is now
advocating a postponement of the next round of grants, into
next year.
The secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan,
had said in early 2002, when he announced the formation of
the fund, that he hoped it would increase global financing
for AIDS to as much as $10 billion a year. The reality has
been a far more modest average of about $1 billion annually
at the fund. That is far below the $20 billion or more a
year that it is estimated the world will soon need to
combat AIDS.
Advocacy groups for people with AIDS are planning to
protest outside the board meeting, beginning on Wednesday,
to drive home the point to board members that people will
suffer unless donors begin doling out more funds.
"If it is delayed, I'm not sure if my clients will still be
there to get any help," said Patricia Asero Ochieng, an
AIDS counselor at Mbagathi District Hospital in Kenya.
Kenya's request for grant money in 2004 was turned down,
with the Global Fund advising the government to reapply in
2005. A postponement of the next round of grants would mean
less money to treat the country's many AIDS victims,
advocates say. "Delay means death," said Kassim Issa, an
AIDS activist.
But American officials say that Kenya, which has been slow
to spend the money it has already received, is a good
example of why another round of financing is not merited
right now. In one case, they say, Kenya's Ministry of
Health spent Global Fund money on a public AIDS rally that
was not authorized by the fund. The government intends to
pay for the rally with its own money and use the grant
money for the approved purposes, Kenyan officials have
said.
Even as it criticizes other countries for not doling out
enough to the Global Fund, the Bush administration has
disappointed many in its own financing levels. The White
House requested $200 million for the fund in 2004, which
Congress later increased to $547 million.
Not all the money may be spent, however. Congress limited
the United States to providing only a third of the Global
Fund's total budget, and donations from other countries
have not reached the $1.1 billion needed to earn the whole
amount.
|
