Health GAP
www.healthgap.org

For Immediate Release: October 13, 2004
Contact: Robert Dabney, 267-467-4683; rdabney@healthgap.org

"COMPASSIONATE" PRES. BUSH SLASHES 2004 GLOBAL AIDS FUND CONTRIBUTION $69 MILLION CUT FROM US CONTRIBUTION WOULD TREAT 25,000 HIV POSITIVE PEOPLE FACING DEATH, PREVENT 100,000 NEW INFECTIONS

(New York) - Health GAP reacted to the announcement today by President Bush's Global AIDS Ambassador, Randall Tobias, that the Bush Administration will cut the US contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 2004 by $69 million.

"President Bush can't have it both ways--he can't claim a record of compassion on global AIDS while arbitrarily slashing funding that the Global Fund desperately needs," said Asia Russell, Director of International Policy for Health GAP. "This decision means funds will be snatched from the hands of people who are facing death without access to treatment and prevention services in poor countries."

Congress requires that the fiscal year 2004 US contribution, $547 million, be matched by other donor countries two-to-one. Because the last of the matching donations, from Italy, Japan and other donors, will not arrive in the Global Fund's bank account until after an arbitrary deadline set by the White House of September 30, 2004, the Bush Administration has decided to reduce its contribution.

The Bush Administration's withholding of already appropriated money comes at the same time the White House is claiming the US is a major supporter of the Global Fund, most recently during the President's speech before the UN General Assembly.

President Bush told the U.N. General Assembly that the U.S. is supporting the Global Fund. In fact, the Global Fund is almost bankrupt, because the US and other donor countries are not contributing their fair share of $3.5 billion in 2005, the minimum the Global Fund needs in order to fund renewals of already approved grants and to launch new funding rounds.

Next year the Bush Administration wants to give only $200 million to the Fund, or 5.7 per cent of the $3.5 billion the Global Fund needs in 2005 in order to keep life saving programs funded and to launch new funding rounds. $1.2 billion represents what should be the U.S.'s proportionate contribution to the Global Fund in 2005.

The Global Fund is an innovative, efficient international funding mechanism that is facing bankruptcy this year, because donor countries, particularly the U.S., have refused to commit their fair share of contributions. The White House favors contributions to the go-it-alone U.S. program, called "PEPFAR," which has reached only 1.5% of its HIV treatment goals. The often repeated claim that the U.S. is the biggest contributor to the Global Fund is inaccurate, according to activists. Europe is contributing more than the U.S. to the Global Fund, although the U.S. represents the same overall wealth.

The Global Fund was launched in 2001, and has dispersed $3 billion through programs in 120 countries. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who helped create the Global Fund, urged the Bush Administration to contribute $1 billion annually to the Global Fund.

#30#