Global Fund resumes TB grant in the Philippines
12 April 2010
Philippine Business for Social Progress is new principal recipient of TB funds
Geneva – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it has resumed funding for its suspended grant for tuberculosis in the Philippines and transferred it to a new principal recipient, Philippine Business for Social Progress.
Totaling more than €45 million, the grant agreement signed today with Philippine Business for Social Progress resumes funding in the country for supporting universal access to TB care, including the management and treatment of multi-drug resistant TB. The Department of Health will be one of the main sub-recipients of this grant. Principal recipients of any Global Fund grant are overall responsible for the implementation of programs, but in most cases, grant funding is distributed to several sub-recipients which implement activities on the ground.
“We are pleased that we are able to quickly resume activities in the Philippines,” said Prof Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. "The Philippines has made very important progress in the fight against tuberculosis and these efforts must continue without any further delay."
The grant had been suspended by the Global Fund in September 2009 after evidence emerged of unauthorized expenditures by the organization that originally administered the program. The grant was then transferred to the new recipient based on recommendations from the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism in the Philippines which consists of representatives from the government, civil society and people affected by the diseases.