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Press Release |
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28 November 2005 |
RWANDA SIGNS SIXTH GRANT WITH THE GLOBAL FUND
Grant is First of Global Fund's Fifth Round of Grants
Signed Only Eight Weeks after Board Approval
Geneva - The first of the Global Fund's fifth round of approved grant proposals was signed today in Kigali, Rwanda, just eight weeks after approval by the Board of the Global Fund at its September Board meeting. Signed by Global Fund Deputy Executive Director Helen Evans and Rwandan Minister of State for HIV/AIDS Dr. Innocent Nyaruhirira, the grant is worth US$ 14.3 million over its first two-year phase, and up to US$ 33.9 million if approved for a full five years. Implementation of the grant will support improved accessibility to health care and strengthened quality of health care delivery in six of Rwanda's twelve provinces, targeting 4.7 million Rwandans.
To date, Rwanda has been one of the most successful implementers of Global Fund grants, with six grants worth a total of US$ 90.9 million approved to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Across the portfolio of Rwanda's grants, strong commitment and collaboration by the government of Rwanda, the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) and civil society has facilitated the rapid scale-up of treatment and prevention efforts. Earlier this year the first of Rwanda's grants to be evaluated after its first two years was approved for continued funding with grant performance measures yielding greater than 100 percent success rates against targets in all eleven of the grant's service delivery areas. In particular, this grant to combat HIV/ TB co-infection extended access to AIDS drugs to more than 4,000 people in eighteen months, or more than twice the number set as a target for the grant's first phase.
The latest grant to Rwanda is one of 26 grants approved by the Board of the Global Fund on September 30, committing US$ 382 million over two years to grants in 20 countries. The grants approved at the Global Fund's September Board meeting represent just over half of all Round 5 grants recommended to the Board for approval for Round 5. The Board was prevented from approving all Round 5 grants immediately due to the current shortfall of resources pledged for 2005; however additional tranches of Round 5 grants will be approved as funds to support these grants become available.
Taken together, the total two-year commitment for 63 grants slated for funding in Round 5 is US$ 726 million. Once all recommended grants have been approved, Round 5 will bring the total of Global Fund commitments for all five rounds of funding to US$ 4.6 billion for more than 370 grants in 131 countries. Through their lifetime, Round 5 grants will support AIDS treatment for an additional 229,000 people, provide voluntary counseling and testing for an additional 10 million people, provide an additional 17 million long-lasting bed nets, an additional 119 million new artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatments against malaria, and an additional 1.5 million treatments against tuberculosis.
Of the 63 grants to be eventually approved in Round 5, AIDS grants account for 40 percent of funding while malaria and TB grants account for 27 percent each. The remaining funding is dedicated to programs to strengthen health systems. Three quarters of the funding will go to low-income countries. Africa receives 66 percent of the new funding, while Asia and the Western Pacific receives 17 percent, Latin America and the Caribbean nine percent, Eastern Europe four percent, and the Middle East four percent.
The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/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 Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.
Around half of the funding is being spent on medicines, mosquito nets to prevent malaria and other products, while the other half is for strengthening health services. While the average age of Global Fund grants is around 16 months, already substantial results have been achieved, with 220,000 people having been supported with treatment for HIV/AIDS, 600,000 people having received TB treatment and more than three million families having received insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria.
Apart from a high standard of technical quality, the Global Fund attaches no conditions to any of its grants. It is not an implementing agency, instead relying on local ownership and planning to ensure that new resources are directed to programs on the frontline of this global effort to reach those most in need. Its performance-based approach to grant-making is designed to ensure that funds are used efficiently and create real change for people and communities. All programs are monitored by independent organizations contracted by the Global Fund to ensure that its funding has an impact in the fight against these three pandemics.
Further information, please contact:
| Rosie Vanek The Global Fund (Geneva, Switzerland) Phone: + 41 22 791 5951 Mobile: + 41 79 445 14 85 |
Jon Liden The Global Fund (Geneva, Switzerland) Phone: + 41 22 791 1723 Mobile: + 41 79 244 6006 |
