Health GAP Press Statement
www.globaltreatmentaccess.org | www.healthgap.org

(June 20, 2003- Thessalonika) At today's EU Summit, heads of state pledged "up to a billion euros" for the cash-strapped Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria for 2004. Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac lobbied heavily for the EU contribution in reaction to US legislation meant to leverage contributions from other countries by offering up to $1 billion a year on the condition that it did not exceed two-thirds of the total funds raised.

"Bush threw down the gauntlet and now European leaders are calling his bluff," said Paul Davis of Health GAP. "Bush must live up to his end of the bargain and deliver $1 billion for the Global Fund before he sets foot in Africa in early July." Originally scheduled for last January, President Bush is traveling to Africa for the first time on July 7. Scheduled stops include countries that are among the heaviest impacted by HIV/AIDS, including Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa.

The Global Fund, originally launched by Bush and other heads of state in 2001, needs a $4 billion by the end of the 2004 to cover the costs of three rounds of grants. In the Global Fund's first two rounds, $1.5 billion grants were approved for over 150 programs in 93 countries. The third round of proposals, which will be decided upon October, will largely remain unfunded due to a budget shortfall.

While activists welcome the leveraging of contributions to the Global Fund, they call for regular annual contributions based on the anticipated costs of country proposals, rather than the funding floor set by Bush signing of the "US Leadership on AIDS, TB, and Malaria Act" at the end of May.

"Leaders of the world's richest countries are looking spiffy dressed up in new pledges for 2004, but the fact is the Fund must turn away the majority of USD 2 billion grant requests submitted this year," said Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP. "It is time for everyone to stop posturing and start paying. The Fund needs $4 billion by end of 2004, with a substantial down payment now."

The "US Leadership on AIDS, TB, and Malaria Act" also authorized $10 billion over the next five years for Bush's bilateral program to fight AIDS in fifteen African and two Caribbean countries. The untested bilateral program, which is not yet operational, has already come under international suspicion as a slush fund for US pharmaceutical companies and a vehicle to dictate abstinence in African communities. Activists contend Bush's side-stepping of the multilateral Global Fund for the sake of a program of his own design will have disastrous consequences for people with HIV/AIDS in need of antiretroviral therapy. Financing from the Global Fund will enable an estimated 500,000 to receive antiretroviral therapy, representing a tripling of current coverage in poor countries.

Activists point to spending patterns and "buy American" rules in US aid as evidence that US-run HIV/AIDS programs are likely to prefer US pharmaceutical companies. Confirming the US will stick to protectionist and preferential policies, they claim, is the recent US pressure on the Global Fund to accept brand-name pharmaceutical donations. According to the activists such a policy would curtail the open-bidding process and competition that would otherwise favor lower-cost quality generic versions of AIDS medicines.

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