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Press Release: Global Fund - Fight is Not Yet Over

25. January 2012

As The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria marks its 10th anniversary and announces major leadership changes, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) Executive Director Peter N. Prove comments on the significance and future of the Global Fund in the response to HIV and AIDS.




Since its establishment in 2002, the Global Fund has been instrumental in massively scaling up the international response to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and has promoted a high degree of transparency and accountability in its operations and those of its partners. Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine, who has announced his resignation after five years in the post, has led the Global Fund to its current central position as a world leader in ensuring treatment, support – and life – for millions of adults and children suffering from these three diseases.




As the organization itself faces a leadership transition and structural changes, it is essential that governments maintain and increase their investment in the Global Fund, and that the Fund continue to be able to support the work of effective evidence-based HIV responses at national levels - including those of churches and related organizations, which currently receive a very low level of Global Fund resources relative to their actual engagement in the fight against HIV.




We have enormous respect for the transparency with which the Global Fund has identified and is seeking to address misuse and corruption related to its funding. No misuse of funds intended for people affected by or at risk of these diseases can be tolerated, and ongoing vigilance against such misuse is a necessity.




For many it seems that the sense of “emergency” has passed, particularly in addressing HIV and AIDS. Indeed, we have always needed to ensure that the mechanisms put in place to respond to the complex issues around the HIV pandemic can be sustained until the disease is eradicated. But the fight is not yet won, and the global HIV response will, for the time being, need continuing and increasing support.




Certainly no one should be under the misapprehension that the HIV emergency is over. New infections are occurring at a rate faster than people are getting access to treatment, and people are continuing to die for the lack of that treatment.




But an AIDS-free generation is finally within our reach, and without increased funding today, all the progress we have made may be lost and the HIV pandemic resume its tragic course.




As The Global Fund prepares itself for its next decade, we pray that the political will to save lives will be renewed and reinvigorated, so that we can indeed achieve zero deaths, zero new infections, and zero stigma and discrimination.




For more information contact: Sara Speicher, sspeicher@e-alliance.ch, +44 7821 860 723.

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