Global AIDS Fund Finding Few Answers to Its Cash Shortage

PARIS, July 16 Representatives of countries contributing to a fund to support the global struggle against AIDS and other diseases that are ravaging the developing world met in Paris today but made little progress toward easing a cash crisis expected later this year.

PARIS, July 16 Representatives of countries contributing to a fund to support the global struggle against AIDS and other diseases that are ravaging the developing world met in Paris today but made little progress toward easing a cash crisis expected later this year.The United States secretary of health and human services, Tommy G. Thompson, the chairman of the fund’s board, said that approval of projects costing $1.6 billion were pending at the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Roughly 40 percent of them, costing $750 million, would likely be approved when the fund’s directors meet in October, he said, yet only $400 million has been pledged.Addressing a one-day conference, which accompanied the International AIDS Society Conference in Paris this week, Mr. Thompson said the fund needed $3 billion by the end of 2004. `’I hope we can negotiate this into real money by October,” he said.At the same time, governments were upstaged by private donors, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would pay $100 million into the fund immediately. The foundation originally pledged $50 million as a first installment and a further $50 million over the next 10 years, making it a larger donor than Britain or Germany, which pledged between $40 million and $48 million.Dr. Helene D. Gayle, the foundation’s AIDS program director, said the decision to accelerate payment was to generate confidence in the fund and to stimulate public contributions, not replace it. Public money, she said, “will be more likely as confidence in the fund grows.”The idea for the fund was born at an Okinawa meeting three years ago of the industrialized nations in the Group of 8. Disbursements of about $3 billion began at the end of last year, about 60 percent for the fight against AIDS, because AIDS medications are more costly than those for tuberculosis or malaria.Earlier this year, President Bush asked Congress to authorize up to $1 billion a year for five years to the fund, provided the amount not exceed one-third of the total contribution by its allies in the European Union and among the wealthy Group of 8 nations, notably Canada, Japan and Russia.But now appropriations are bogged down both in Washington and at the European Union. European leaders discussed the issue at a summit meeting in Salonika, Greece, in June but failed to reach agreement on matching Mr. Bush’s proposal. Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, said he was sure Europe would raise $1 billion. “Sometimes we are like the tortoise in the fable, advancing one step at a time,” Mr. Prodi said. “But like the tortoise we get there in the end.”Representatives of nongovernmental organizations that promote access to affordable medicines in developing countries organized protest demonstrations and assailed the group for failing to produce concrete commitments. Mr. Thompson said he would travel to Africa in December at the head of a group of American corporate leaders to drum up private sector support for the fund. That approach was criticized by some nongovernmental organizations as an effort by the Bush administration to shift the burden from the public to the private sector.Richard C. Holbrooke, the former diplomat and president of the Global Business Coalition on H.I.V./AIDS, who will accompany Mr. Thompson on the trip, denied this. “Businesses are not likely to be major sources of funds to the global fund,” he said. “It is not realistic to expect that.” He said some corporate sponsors, like hotel chains, might be induced to solicit clients for a donation to the fund on a voluntary basis.Dr. Richard G. A. Feachem, the fund’s executive director, said donor nations had pledged $4.7 billion through the end of 2007, which will help support 150 programs in 93 countries. (Source: New York Times, By JOHN TAGLIABUE, 16 July 2003)