Alliance signs €55m agreement with Global Fund for continuation of Ukrainian HIV/AIDS programme

News from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance

29 September 2005: for immediate release

A new three-year, €55 million agreement has been signed between the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This continues the Alliance’s role as Principal Recipient of the Global Fund’s HIV/AIDS grant in Ukraine, and will build on the substantial achievements of the past 18 months.

Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the Alliance said:

“The past year has already seen a big expansion in the number of people receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, from 137 patients up to around 2,500 individuals through activities supported by the Global Fund. This is a testament to the active participation of hundreds of supporting and implementing organisations, and new partnerships between the government, NGOs and local networks.

“The new agreement is a great opportunity to continue strengthening and expanding these efforts to overcome the epidemic. As well as focused HIV prevention work with vulnerable communities, the programme will further expand the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment to 6,000 by October 2008. The new agreement is a strong vindication of the work of all those involved in the programme so far in Ukraine.”

Andriy Klepikov, director of the Alliance Ukraine, highlighted:

“The design of the second phase of Global Fund activities in Ukraine has been led by representatives of Ukraine’s new government and we are working closely with the Ukrainian National Coordination Council on the Prevention of the Spread of HIV/AIDS. The plan is to transfer management of certain programme activities to the Ukrainian government during 2006. In its second phase, the programme will cover four key areas:

  1. scaling up access to and quality of anti-retroviral treatment;
  2. strengthening and expanding prevention services, particularly among groups at the centre of the epidemic;
  3. developing better care and support services for affected people and communities; and
  4. improving the monitoring and evaluation of the epidemic’s spread and the response to it.

Successful partnerships with other stakeholders including the Ukrainian government, implementing organisations, and local networks of those affected will be key to achieving the goals of this agreement, which is the most significant part of Ukraine’s national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Editor’s notes

1. Ukraine is experiencing one of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. Ukraine’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among adults is estimated at 1.4% - currently the highest among the countries of Europe and Central Asia. As of 1 July 2005, the official cumulative number of HIV cases in Ukraine was 81,240 with a further 10,687 registered with AIDS, and 6,348 AIDS deaths. UNAIDS/WHO estimates are far beyond these official figures, suggesting that about half a million of Ukrainians are infected.

2. Following the Global Fund’s difficult decision to suspend its grant to Ukraine (due to reservations over management of the programme) in January 2004, the Alliance was appointed temporary Principal Recipient of the grant in February 2004. On 21 March 2005, in a letter addressed to the Alliance, the Ministry of Health and the All Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV, Ukraine was invited to submit a request for continued funding. As a result in May 2005, the Alliance was nominated by a group of stakeholder representatives and endorsed by the Ukrainian National Coordination Council on the Prevention of the Spread of HIV/AIDS (UNCC), to receive additional funding and continue to manage and implement the remainder of the programme.

3. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has been supporting community action on AIDS in developing countries since 1993. It has worked with community organisations from over 40 countries, provided financial support to over 3,000 projects (implemented by over 2,000 community and faith-based groups). Expenditure in 2004 alone was approximately USD 37 million.

4. The Alliance has been working in Ukraine since 2000. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, co-implementer of the programme, is a separate legal entity but an integral part of the Alliance family. It is the largest HIV/AIDS-focused organisation in Ukraine.

5. The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases. The Global Fund has so far committed $2.1 billion to 225 programs in 121 countries.

6. For more information about the work of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and to arrange interviews, please contact Simon Moore. T: 01273 718744. E: smoore@aidsalliance.org or Rhian Evans. T: 01273 718961. E: revans@aidsalliance.org

7. For more information on the Alliance Ukraine, please contact Andriy Klepikov, executive director of the Alliance Ukraine. T: +380 44 201 64 77 (78). E: klepikov@aidsalliance.org.ua. To learn more about the current stage of the programme, please visit the web site www.aidsalliance.org.ua