Article: Health Secretary Hails Establishment of Global AIDS Fund

14 March 2002

Article: Health Secretary Hails Establishment of Global AIDS Fund

Thompson says fund will produce "effective, tangible" results

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson said the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis is a "great thing," and he looks forward to "effective, tangible" results from the private-public funding mechanism.

Speaking at a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) March 14, Thompson, who will serve on the fund's international governing board, said the first round of grants for anti-disease projects will be awarded in April at a New York meeting. A technical panel of experts is currently at work reviewing the proposals that have been submitted by private and public groups around the world. The groups have outlined plans on how they might be able to address disease-related problems in their communities with financial support from the global fund.

The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria began to take shape as a functioning organization in the months following the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001. According to a press statement issued by the fund itself earlier this month, it will be "working to increase global resources to combat the three diseases, to direct these resources where they are needed most, and to ensure that they are used effectively." The group had its first organizational meeting in January 2002.

The three targeted diseases are the world's biggest killers, taking about 6 million lives each year.

The fund represents "a brand new way of bringing assistance to where it's needed," said Bill Steiger, a special assistant to Thompson for international affairs. With the first grants set to be made in April, Steiger said the fund will be soliciting proposals for a second round of projects for financing consideration a few months later.

With this progress, and a staff and a corporate structure in place, Steiger said that establishing the fund "has gone better than any of us expected."

Steiger reiterated Thompson's emphasis on the importance of fund-backed disease programs producing genuine results. The private-public partnership on which the fund is based must extend down to the implementation of the projects, he said, with active involvement of civil society. He said citizen groups would be instrumental in helping to determine whether programs are achieving results in countering disease and the social and economic impact of disease. A formalized system for maintaining accountability is now being drawn, he said.

The fund is conceived as a public-private partnership in governance, in program operations, but also in its fundraising. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, established by the major stockholder of Microsoft Corporation, has contributed $100 million to the fund, for instance, and other corporations, private foundations and individuals are also pledging donations.

PACHA member and former U.S. Congressman Ronald V. Dellums suggested that not enough has been done to encourage contributions from the private sector. Steiger acknowledged that a stronger fundraising campaign should be mounted now that the mechanics of establishing the fund have been completed.

The long-term stability of the fund will depend on being able to tap donations from the private sector, Steiger said. In order to be effective in attracting that money, however, Steiger said the fund must be able to demonstrate that it is underwriting effective anti-disease programs.

Some PACHA members told Thompson that the United States should be making a larger financial donation to the fund. The United States has pledged a fund contribution of $500 million to be allocated over the next five years. Thompson pointed out that the U.S. amount is fully 25 percent of the total amount yet pledged to the new funding mechanism by all other contributors combined.

"That's a tremendous, generous contribution," Thompson said, especially in view of the other urgent national priorities such as the war on terrorism and homeland security.

The discussion of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis was part of a two-day PACHA meeting. Twenty-five new members, recently appointed by Thompson, were sworn into office for their first meeting of the group March 14. The council members have a wide range of experiences in dealing with disease in both the medical and social context. They are charged with examining the array of federal programs and initiatives addressing disease, and offering the president recommendations on how to improve them.

Thompson offered his thanks to the members for their willingness to take on the job, and said, "Today we begin a new chapter" in the U.S. struggle against disease.