SA pledges R36m to Global Fund
2005-09-08 10:17
Johannesburg - South Africa has pledged R36m to the Global Fund to fight aids, tuberculosis and malaria over the next three years, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
"South Africa is one of the 29 countries and organisations that pledged a total of $3.7bn at the Global Fund replenishment conference held in London this week," the department said in a statement.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang made the announcement at the conference on Tuesday.
"In addition to making a contribution to the Global Fund, we in South Africa have made a commitment to invest a significant amount of our domestic resources into the fight against HIV and Aids, tuberculosis and malaria," Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Pledges welcomed
In the 2003/4 financial year, government spent R900m on fighting HIV, Aids and TB. This increased to R1.2bn in the 2004/5 financial year and reached R1.5bn in the current financial year.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who chaired the conference welcomed the pledges.
"The pledges made here today will go a long way towards ensuring the longer-term sustainability of the Global Fund. They will help countries establish comprehensive programmes to fight Aids, TB and malaria and they will provide us all with an important source of hope and encouragement for the future; hope that we can make major progress in reversing the spread of Aids and other infectious diseases," said Annan.
'Funds must be spent effectively'
The replenishment conference was hosted by the UK department for international development and was the last of three meetings to assess Global Fund performance and resource needs.
The previous meetings took place in Stockholm in March and in Rome in June.
Participants stressed that increased funding for the Global Fund needs to be accompanied by improved co-ordination among international and bilateral donors and sufficient technical assistance to ensure that funds are spent effectively.
The amount pledged represents more than half of the Global Fund's total resource needs of $7bn for the two-year period.
"This is the first time the Global Fund has attempted a formal replenishment process," said Dr Richard Feachem, the fund's executive director.
"It has been a success and makes us hopeful we will reach our total needs by 2007."
- SAPA