One of Kofi Annan biggest legacies as Secretary General of the UN is the The Global Fund. It was created to finance the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These diseases kill over 6 million people each year, and the numbers are growing. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$ 9.9 billion in 136 countries to support aggressive interventions against all three diseases. The success of the Global Fund is still up to much debate.
Of the US$9.9 billiomn committed worldwide, US$400,000,000 has been approved for projects in Nigeria. Find details of individual project allocations here.
The Global Fund has also just announced that the eighth round of proposals, to be launched on 1 March 2008, will be particularly well funded; and apparently there will be enough money to approve every proposal in which the need is clearly established, the design is good, and the ability to implement is proven.
Proposals are sent in by every country’s County Coordinating Mechanism (CCM). …as we can expect from Nigeria.
Nigeria has had 5 proposal appoved(25%), and 15 (75%)rejected. Interestingly its very first application for funding HIV/AIDS was accepted in the first round. 2 Malaria grants were accepted in the 2nd and 4th rounds. This was followed by one each for HIV and TB in the 5th round…and we all thought that the quality of our applications and level of implementation was getting better.
Then our next 6 applications were rejected! Is there a conspiracy against us or have the quality of our applications been poor? That is the question Nigerians would like to hear from our CCM!.
2 years ago, inconsistencies in data provided by NACA, including the number of people taking antiretroviral drugs have previously led to Nigeria’s suspension from recieving support from the Global Fund. This was eventually resolved.
Nigeria is not only a recipient but also a donour country…being the the highest of only 3 donors among African countries (South Africa gave $8,141,312 , Uganda gave $1,500,000).
…Of course I tried searching the website of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS for some data of how the funds disbursed to them have been used and got excited when I found a link “National Response Data” on their website….eagerly I clicked on it to find “THIS SECTION IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT & WOULD BE AVAILABLE SHORTLY”
HIV prevalence surrently stands at 3.9% among adults aged 15 to 49 HIV prevalence giving an odd 2,600,000 Nigerians infected. Reuters reported in September that there are about 140,000 Nigerians recieving antiretroviral therapy.
DECEMBER 1 is WORLD AIDS DAY….think about the 2.6 million Nigerians infected and if there is more we could all have done to prevent this….and can still do.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead