A lack of political commitment on the part of donor governments as well as apathy at governmental and civil society levels in many developing countries is proving problematic. This, combined, with the global economic crisis has left the ability for the Global Fund to raise the 20 billion it needs in the next three years in question.
Technical merit first and foremost
The Friends of the Global Fund are calling for prioritisation of proposals to continue to remain first and foremost on the basis of technical merit.
Javier Hourcade, of the Friends of the Global Fund said, “There needs to be equity between countries with a generalised epidemic and those with a concentrated epidemic with a prevalence rate higher than 5% in more than one population group.
“We need donors to show political will to do the right thing and make sure that people living in Latin America, the Caribbean are not sent to the back of the queue again.”
Update
Friends of Global Fund Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), along with other stakeholders, ran a campaign collecting signatures in Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa to support a petition to the Global Fund board on the prioritisation issue.
In just one week it collected 1300 signatures. This was acknowledged during the meeting and a special track of funding was approved for Round 10 for programmes with most at risk populations in countries with concentrated epidemics, which partially addresses what the petition requested to the board.