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    Dandora Community AIDS Support Organization (DACASA) | Health GAP (Global Access Project) | Kenya Treatment Access Movement (KETAM) | Kenya Organisation of People Living with AIDS (KOPLWA)
    Press Statement
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    MEDIA ADVISORY

    CONTACT: Patricia Asero Ochieng, Tel: +254 733-590-232, Sharonann Lynch, Tel: +254 723 969-122, +1 646 645 5225

    For Immediate Release November 14, 2004

    GLOBAL FUND THREATENED: U.S., OTHERS TO BLOCK NEW ROUND OF FUNDING

    AIDS Activists, Planning Demonstration At Meeting Of Global Fund, Heads Of State, Call For Global Fund To Launch New Road In November

    WHAT: A press conference where AIDS activists will speak about the next day's demonstration in Arusha, Tanzania, where Kofi Annan, heads of states of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Global Fund board members will be meeting. High on the agenda for Global Fund 9th Board Meeting, the first in Africa, will be whether to launch a request for proposals, or to delay opportunities for new funding until 2006.

    WHEN: 9:30am on Tuesday, 16 NOVEMBER 2004

    WHERE: The press conference will be held in Chester House press centre, first floor, Room B, Koinange Street, Nairobi, Kenya.

    SPEAKERS:

    • Patricia Asero Ochieng of the Dandora Community AIDS Support Organization (DACASA), who is an adherence counselor in the ARV clinic at Mbagathi District Hospital

    • James Kamau of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement (KETAM)

    • Kassim Issa, co-founder of Kenya Organisation of People Living with HIV/AIDS (KOPLWA), based in the Kibera slum, the largest slum in Africa.

    • Sharonann Lynch, Health GAP (Global Access Project), USA

    WHY: The Global Fund Board is being urged by donor country board members, in particular the U.S., not to launch Round 5 on time. According to activists, the U.S. and other donors are trying to prevent a new Round of grant requests from being launched in November to avoid pressure to fund the round once it is launched.

    AIDS activists plan to demand the immediate launch of the Global Fund's 5th Round of grants during the demonstration outside the Arusha International Conference Center 17 November.

    Donors have consistently underfunded the Global Fund; the Bush Administration wants to commit $200 million for 2005 when the U.S. fair share of funding is one-third of what the Global Fund needs in 2005, or one-third of $3.5 billion.

    The U.S. delegation to the Global Fund Board has been aggressively lobbying developing countries, claiming that funding for existing grants might be jeopardized if a new Round is launched. In fact, Global Fund guidelines state that the renewal of funding for existing grants takes precedence over funding new grants, according to the activists.

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