Global Fund pledges $ 46 billion from government sources

Company News from Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-04-23

The Global Fund (GF), created by the United Nations to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is raising $ 46 billion from government sources to help save 16 million lives around the world of these three diseases.

Nicknamed the "Sixth Replenishment", the fund calls on the world to step up its fight against HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In addition, the GF, an international funding organization, is seeking to raise US $ 14 billion from other international donors in order to avoid 234 million infections over the next three years.

Resource mobilization

At the local level, a round table entitled "Mobilizing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for National Resource Mobilization and the Sixth Replenishment of the Global Fund" was organized with members of the Special Committee on Parliamentary Health in Accra.

The meeting aimed to facilitate and mobilize civil society and stakeholders on domestic resource mobilization and solicit the commitment of governments, the private sector and development partners to the fund.

The roundtable was organized by Hope for Future Generations, a Ghanaian non-governmental organization (NGO) for health and health, in partnership with the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS).

Also present were Mr. Cyril Nogier, Senior Country Lead, Support for Countries in the English and African Region, GAVI, Vaccine Alliance, a global public-private partnership for health committed to increasing access to immunization in the developing world. poor countries.

Ms. Linda Mafu, head of civil society and political advocacy at the Global Fund, addressed MPs at the meeting in Accra. She asked them to help them mobilize national funds for improving health care around the world.

She said the fund currently has limited resources but more complex health issues to deal with.

In his brief, the chairman of the special parliamentary committee on health, Mr. Kwabena Twum-Nuamah, said that the time had come for governments to invest in health.

The mantra of "limited resources"

According to him, successive governments "sometimes exaggerate the mantra of" limited resources "to do nothing".

Mr. Twum-Nuamah said that people saw the health sector as a place where money was injected with no return, but "if we look at the sector as an economic good and not just a social thing, the investments made would then be perceived as having a training effect. . "

He said that the Parliamentary Health Committee is committed to ensuring that Ghana attaches seriousness to the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Deputy Minister of Surveillance and Evaluation William Kwasi Sabi, also a member of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Health, said that only 8.5 percent of the country's budget was spent on health against 15% recommended by the African Union (AU). .

The challenge for FM funding was that not all countries could raise matching funds before they could benefit.

Mr. Sabi said that although the intention is not to tolerate a situation in which governments would be irresponsible in terms of commitment, it was necessary for them to be held accountable for what happened. They had promised.

Commitment

Dr. Robert Kuganab, a member of the Deputy Health Rankings, was of the opinion that although most African countries had the necessary resources, they lacked the necessary commitment.

He said governments are obliged to ensure that their citizens have access to health care, so the need for them to seek health care should be their priority and stressed that African governments could not rely on grants forever.

Mark Saalfield, Global Fund Portfolio Manager, called on governments to examine the economic benefits of the health sector and invest in the health of their populations.

Cecilia Senoo, Founder and Executive Director of Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), a civil society organization (CSO), said African CSOs had identified key moments in 2019, such as the Universal Health Coverage Conference. (CSU), held in Kigali in March, the high-level meeting on UHC to be held in September in New York, the AU Francophone Summit in October, as well as country budgets and national health forums as opportunities and entry points for advocacy for domestic resource mobilization for the Global Fund.