Global Fund grants to Cameroon renewed
30 March 2007
Funding for Additional Three Years Worth US$ 68 million
Geneva - The Minister of Health of Cameroon, Dr Urbain Olanguena Awono, and the Deputy Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Ms Helen Evans, have together signed grant agreements worth more than US$ 68 million for the second phase of four programs fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in Cameroon.
The four grants, two to combat HIV/AIDS and two to fight tuberculosis and malaria, respectively, began implementation in 2005. Recently, they have successfully gone through the Global Fund's Phase 2 process.
The Phase 2 process is designed as a checkpoint in a grant's lifecycle. Funding is initially committed for the first two years of the proposal period. The process guarantees that only grants with satisfactory performance measured against agreed targets for the first two years of a grant's life continue to receive funding for the remaining years.
"The Global Fund has always been a strong partner in our efforts to fight these three terrible pandemics," Dr Awono, the country's Minister of Health said. "HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, however, still take the lives of too many people in Cameroon. Our nation will continue the hard work to reverse the spread of the three diseases and we are extremely happy that we can count on the continued support of the Global Fund."
Among many other activities, resources will be used to scale up efforts, like the provision of necessary drugs to people suffering from the three diseases and the development of communication materials to promote voluntary counseling and testing for HIV as well as those to create awareness of and change behavior toward HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.
"Both civil society and the government of Cameroon have proved to be strong implementers of our grants", said Mabingue Ngom, Cluster Leader in charge of Global Fund grants in West and Central Africa. "I am confident that Cameroon will make the best use of these Global Fund resources to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria and provide hope for a better future to the many people infected and affected in the country."
To date, tens of millions of people have already been reached with life-saving services provided through the Global Fund. Programs benefiting from Global Fund resources have provided antiretroviral treatment to 770,000 people with HIV, treated 2 million people with effective tuberculosis medications and distributed 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets to protect children and families from malaria.