Issue # 10
August 24, 2004
Calí, Colombia

In this issue

Global Fund
Positive management balance

Purchase of generic and registered brand ARV medication.
Latin American and Caribbean Community Networks make an announcement

Informative round

Bolivia prepares more proposals


Write the Editor

Download PDF version to print in letter size

Note
To print the bulletin, verify that your printe is
configured for letter size
and set up the right and left margins to 10 mil



Moderators

Oswaldo Adolfo Rada L.
Regional Secretary for RedLa+

Germán Rincón Perfetti
G&M de Colombia Abogados
Lideres en Acción

Text and design editor
David Morales Alb
a

Translator
Cecilia Sarmiento


According to international e-mail standards regarding SPAM, an e-mail cannot be considered SPAM as long as it includes a way for you to be removed from the list. You can unsubscribe from the list by sending an e-mail to: info@redla.org with the word “remove” on the subject line

Global Fund

Positive management balance

Bangkok, Global Fund - In an analysis of its first 25 grants in operation for one year, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has found that these grants have reached an average of 80% of their targets. This is the conclusion of “A Force for Change: The Global Fund at 30 Months”, a report that was released last July to assess progress since the Global Fund’s creation in early 2002.

The report shows that the Global Fund’s strengths include flexibility to correct mistakes, adapt to local conditions and that its performance-based funding system works well. It points to the need to improve the functioning of Country Coordination Mechanisms must become more effective and inclusive.

In the introduction, the report says “The Global Fund’s first achievement lies in its size and speed of action: since its humble beginnings with a staff of five in the first half of 2002, it now has pledges of US$ 5.4 billion through 2008, and it has committed US$ 3.1 billion to more than 250 two-year programs in nearly 130 countries over four rounds of grant proposals. It is on schedule to disburse nearly US$1 billion to over 200 programs by the end of the year.

 “The second significant achievement is the pioneering of a number of innovative structures to ensure country ownership, light and speedy oversight, and performance-based funding. The performance of these structures has been varied, but the conclusion is that they have been valuable innovations which, with ongoing modification, will assist countries in more effective implementation of public health programs beyond those financed by the Global Fund.”

These are the opinions of the Fund’s spokespersons

“The Global Fund has developed a unique financing structure and disbursement system,” says Richard Feachem, the Global Fund’s Executive Director. “These results prove that the system works. A number of issues need improvements, but as a global experiment in development finance, the Global Fund is so far a success.”

Bernhard Schwartlander, Director for Strategic Information and Evaluation at the Global Fund states, “In development assistance, one year of operation is a very short period to measure results,” He added, “The real impact of our ongoing grants will really only be possible to measure after few years. But we felt compelled to publish these early findings since there is such keen interest in – and great expectations for – the Global Fund”.

The numbers

An analysis of 25 of the Global Fund’s 296 grants which have been operation for one year, found that 12 were on target or over-performing, while five were severely behind schedule. The remaining eight programs were slightly behind targets but are likely to catch up in their second year. When performance was averaged across all 25 grants, performance was just over 80 percent of targets.    

The analysis was conducted for the period from 1 May 2003 until 30 April 2004. In total, the 25 grants in 15 countries have reached 2.3 million people with interventions such as testing, treatment and care, and 340,000 people have been trained. 5,200 people had been reached with antiretroviral therapy in four programs, while 45,000 people have been successfully cured for TB. Nearly 350,000 bed nets have been distributed in three programs.

This average hides some substantial over achievers, such as Honduras which put nearly twice as many people on treatment as planned, and Madagascar, which had distributed well over double the number of insecticide-impregnated bed nets it had planned. / Back to top


Purchase of generic and registered brand ARV medication

Latin American and Caribbean Community Networks make an announcement

Cali, RedLa+ - Several Latin American and Caribbean Community Networks recently announced their opposition to buying and distributing antiretroviral medication (ARV) to treat HIV/AIDS infection, that is not from a pharmaceutical or a pharmaceutical registered trademark product, known as innovative or original.

By doing this, the Networks are subscribing to the announcement they made to only and exclusively support the distribution of ARVs certified by the OMPS/OPS, the World Fund, and other agencies. In addition they stated that they would give their support to universal access to treatment for all the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA), under the equality criteria, treatment for all and of the highest quality.

The Networks also agreed to promote the reporting of policies, employees, organizations and companies that perform illegal practices, fought with ethics that promote partial information and disinformation about the treatment of PLWA

They also agreed to ask the OMS/OPS to lead the 3 x 5 Initiative by including the different national key figures in the discussion and decision making process, in each and every country in the region. Another point they agreed on was for the two international organisms and governments to implement processes for the supervision of pharmaceuticals that include committees with the participation of the community sector.

In their statement, the Networks call upon innovative drug manufactures and manufacturers of certified generics to give special prices to Government institutions and non-governmental organizations that work in the LAC countries, and to reduce their prices in order to guarantee universal access to medication that treats HIV and opportunistic infections in the region.

The commitment

The Networks are committed to promote the needs of its citizens and social control about these topics in the region, since it is considered and URGENT and IMPORTANT matter, which will allow for follow-up processes, demand and promote processes for technology to be transferred.

The motivations

The considerations that motivate the announcement state that life, health, social security, access to advances in science and technology and equal treatment, are human rights that must be guaranteed by the States to those living with HIV.

They also state that in the Latin American region and the Caribbean (LAC), there are currently 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS and that more than 200,000 people are infected with the virus every year. More than 100,000 people died in 2002, due mainly to lack of ARVs and timely detection. There is currently a great number of people in several countries living with HIV who do not have access to the necessary drug.

Lastly, they state that their interest don’t lie in conflict results, negotiations, national purchases or bidding, regional or international, except what is detailed in their articles.

The Networks consider that HIV and AIDS are no longer costly diseases since the price of drugs and laboratory testing has decreased drastically in the last five years.

Download the complete document about the announcement.
(File in PDF format,
8 pages, 49 Kb).

Who participated in the announcement?

Asociación por la Salud Integral y la Ciudadanía de América Latina (ASICAL)

Movimiento Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Mujeres que viven con VIH/SIDA (MLCM+)

Comunidad Internacional de Mujeres que viven con VIH, Secretaria Regional para América Latina y el Caribe de ICW+

Red de Reducción del Daño (RELARD)

Consejo Latinoamericano y del Caribe de ONGs con Servicio en VIH/SIDA (LACCASO)

Red de Trabajadores Sexuales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe (REDTRABSEXLAC)

Red Latinoamericana de Personas que Viven con VIH/SIDA (REDLA+) / Back to top


Bolivia prepares more proposals

 La Paz, Bolivia, REDVIHDA+ - REDBOL+ is currently working with the design of its strategy to present three proposals, those highlighted among them are: its strength, training and that related to human rights of those living with HIV/AIDS.

Julio César Aguilera, a focal point for RedLa+ in Bolivia and member of the ‘Red Boliviana de PVS’, reported that in the remaining strategies the groups and members of the Network were given the liberty to nominate the projects that respond to the cultural, language and geographic reality of Bolivia / Back to top