AIDS, TB, malaria body warns "ad hoc" funding risky

A global fund dreamt up by U.N. chief Kofi Annan to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is facing a shortfall just three years after its birth and needs donors to commit billions of dollars over the next few years.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was set up as an independent, transparent conduit for rich nations' aid against the big three killer epidemics, which together cause about six million deaths a year.

But the Geneva-based Fund's chief Richard Feachem said in an interview on Monday that while donors have pledged $6 billion so far - about one third from the United States - it needs one third as much again to meet its current commitments.

AIDS treatment especially is a long-term commitment and the Fund needs to know how much financing it can count on in coming years instead of the "very ad hoc, insecure" pledges now made by donor nations on an annual basis, Feachem said.

"The shortfall in 2006 and 2007 is very substantial because up until now most donors have pledged year by year, they haven't made long-term multi-year pledges," he said in an interview.

"It is merely optimism that the money will be available. This 'replenishment' conference will turn optimism into firm commitments and guaranteed long-term funding," he told Reuters.

He hopes that a funding conference in Stockholm this week will accept his estimate that the Fund needs $3.5 billion in 2006 and slightly more in 2007. Donor nations will then meet in London in September to settle the size of their commitments.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said it is vital to predict fund flows so that "five years down the road we won't run into the situation where we have to tell patients 'I am sorry, we are running out of money', which is basically a death sentence."

PROJECTS ASSESSED

The Fund's independence from the United Nations and strict audits of projects earn it the trust of governments sceptical about the multilateral aid organisations, said Feachem.

"Donors and taxpayers who give money to donor governments are sceptical about pouring money into black holes and want to know their tax dollars are effectively used to buy prevention and treatment and really improve the lives of people in Africa and other parts of the world," he said.

Projects are assessed after two years on yardsticks, such as how many mothers and children are sleeping under bed nets impregnated chemicals to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitos or how many teenage girls have been educated about AIDS. Honduras, Laos and Senegal have all failed the test.