Global Fund for ATM Approves $71 Million for PAHO Countries

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has committed $71.3 million in grants over two years to member countries of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as a result of its latest round of financing approvals in October 2003.

The funds will go to Belize ($1.3 million for HIV/AIDS), Bolivia ($14.5 million for AIDS, malaria, and TB), the Dominican Republic ($2.5 million for TB), Guatemala ($8.4 million for HIV/AIDS), Guyana ($11.5 million for AIDS and malaria), Haiti ($15.4 million for malaria and TB), Jamaica ($7.6 million for HIV/AIDS) and Paraguay ($1.2 million for TB). In addition, the fund approved $8.7 million for regional HIV/AIDS initiatives in the Caribbean.

The funds will support health promotion, surveillance, and treatment and prevention programs targeting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The new approvals add to earlier commitments of $170 million for PAHO member countries. The October round of financing included an additional $117 million (over and above the $71.3 million), contingent on donor contributions and on grantees' performance in carrying out projects during the first two years.

PAHO provided technical cooperation to its member countries' country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs), which set countrywide priorities and develop grant proposals based on these priorities for submission to the fund. Each CCM consists of representatives of government, bilateral and multilateral agencies (including PAHO), nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, the private sector and people living with the diseases.

Hernán Rosenberg, chief of PAHO's Project Support Unit, says the Global Fund's reliance on CCMs "has introduced an important public-private coordinating function" into the process of public health financing. Rosenberg was seconded from PAHO to serve as head of portfolio management at the Global Fund during its first two rounds.

Established in 2002, the Global Fund has to date approved $2.1 billion for 224 programs in 121 countries and 3 territories. This includes $241 million (11 percent of the total) approved for Latin America and the Caribbean, of which $27.4 million has been disbursed.

Among the biggest recipients in the Americas during the fund's first and second rounds of financing were Haiti, Honduras and Peru, which together received $96.5 million in commitments for the first two years of each grant period. By far the region's biggest recipient so far is Haiti, with $40 million in promised two-year grants and $26 million in contingent funds.

In addition to providing assistance with development of grant proposals, PAHO will, upon request, provide Member States with technical and managerial expertise to help carry out projects that have been approved by the fund.