[e-drug] G7 Finance Ministers meeting: Crisis at the Global Fund

[Olivier Jablonski <nordsud@altern.org>]

E-drug: G7 Finance Ministers meeting: Crisis at the Global Fund
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Press contact : Khalil Elouardighi - ACT UP-Paris - + 33 6 6315 38 82

G7 Finance Ministers meeting: Crisis at the Global Fund
16 May 2003

An AIDS G8 Emergency campaign press release

Today May 16, the Finance Ministers of the world's 7 wealthiest
countries are meeting in France to discuss international affairs and
their financial implications, and prepare the G8 summit of June 1-3.

At the United Nations and the Genoa Summit in 2001 (1), the G8
countries committed to reaching a total 10 billion dollars a year for the
fight against aids and created a Global Fund to do so. Two years
later, G8 donations to the Fund are still less than 350 million a year.
Where is the 10 billion promised ?

"The Fund is empty. A minimum of 1,4 billion dollars is required for
2003" declared the Director of the Global Fund, Richard Feachem, on
May 4 (2). "If the United States the other members of the G7 don't
augment their contributions to the Global Fund in the immediate
future, we will be in desperate trouble" warned UN Envoy for AIDS
Stephen Lewis on January 8 (3). If current budgetary trends continue,
donor support in 2003 will still be much less than the bare minimum
required for basic prevention and care programs warned the IMF and
the World Bank in their April 2003 report to the Finance Ministers (4).

On the field, underfinancing of the Global Fund already has dramatic
human consequences. Gilles Raguin of French medical aid
organisation Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) explains : in
Cambodia we have started a treatment programme for people with
aids which is partly financed by the Fund. After a year the Fund's
money's still not here, and many people have had to go without
treatment and died.

On February 22 the G7 Finance Ministers 3reaffirmed support for the
Global Health Fund [whose] achievement calls for an increased
volume of development resources. We will continue to focus on the
Millenium Development Goals [including aids] and their financing, with
a view to making further progress by Evian (5). At their last meeting
before the Evian summit, the G7 Finance Ministers must commit to
release the required 1,4 billion emergency contribution to the Global
Fund, and okay the payment, in the course of the year, of their fair
share of the 10 billion they promised in 2001.

********************************************************

The AIDS G8 Emergency campaign is an initiative by Act Up-Paris,
CRID (Center for Research and Information on Development),
Ensemble Contre le Sida (Together Against Aids), France-Liberti,
GRDR (Group for Rural Development Research), Medecins du
Monde (Doctors of the World), MFPF (French Movement for Family
Planning) and Solidariti Sida (AIDS Solidarity).

*********************************************************
(1) Declaration by the Member Governments of the United Nations,
June 27 www.unaids.org/UNGASS/keepingthepromise/
french/Promise_annex1_fr.pdf
Declaration by the G8 Heads of State and Government, July 22 2001
http://www.elysee.fr/cgi-bin/auracom/aurweb/search/file?aur_file=disc
ours/20 01/G80107E.html

(2) Interview with Richard Feachem, Jeune Afrique, May 4 2003
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/gabarits/articleJAI_online.asp?art_cle=LI
N04053d ansvsulptn0

(3) Declaration by Stephen Lewis at the UN Headquarters in New
York, January 8 2003 
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/aids/2003/0108murder.h
tm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/aids/2003/0108murder.h
tm

(4) IMF/World Bank reports for the annual Finance Ministers
meetings, April 2 2003 
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/DCS/devcom.nsf/(documentsattachme
ntsweb)/April
2003FrenchDC20030004(F)/$FILE/DC2003-0004(F)-ScalingUp.pdf

http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/DCS/devcom.nsf/(documentsweb)?Se
archView&count
P00000&Query=FIELD+AnnMeetings=April+2003+AND+FIELD+Lang
uage=English

(5) Statement by G-7 Finance Ministers, February 22nd 2003
http://www.minefi.gouv.fr/minefi/ministere/ministre/index.htm 
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug