Global Fund: Obama must make sure U.S. word is good on Global Fund

President Barack Obama has taken criticism recently from global health advocates, including retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, a UN adviser on the Millennium Development Goals. Whether these criticisms are altogether fair -- Obama's 2011 budget actually increases global health spending -- the president's potential shortchanging of the enormously successful Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a blunder that would cost thousands of lives in some of the world's poorest countries.
It must not happen if the U.S. wants to maintain its moral leadership on AIDS and other global health issues.
Established a decade ago, the Global Fund deploys desperately needed resources to poor countries overwhelmed by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Working in 144 countries, the Global Fund has already saved an estimated 5.7 million lives by supporting programs that, among other things, eliminate the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their unborn children.
Programs supported by the Global Fund are designed by public and private agencies, working together in the host countries, and then evaluated by the Global Fund to ensure results. They have provided lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment to 2.8 million people, 122 million insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, and tuberculosis treatment for 7 million people. Congress, in a July 27 letter signed by more than 100 U.S. representatives, has urged the president to commit no less than the $6 billion, over three years, authorized in the 2008 Lantos-Hyde bill.
That's especially important, because every dollar the U.S. commits to the Global Fund is matched, 2-1, by other donors. In other words, the $6-billion U.S. contribution will leverage another $12 billion from other nations.
Joyce Kamwana of Malawi, an ambassador to the Global AIDS Fund, told the Free Press this week that Global Fund programs have reduced the mortality rate tenfold for AIDS-related illnesses in her country. "Without the intervention, I would not be alive today," said Kamwana, 47, who tested positive for HIV in 1988.
These are stories Obama should remember. He is scheduled to attend a UN conference in New York that begins Sept. 20 on the Millennium Development Goals for global health. There, he is expected to announce whether he will make good on the U.S. pledge of $6 billion over three years to the Global Fund. Unfortunately, the U.S. has not kept its word and fully funded the Global Fund, and Obama could reduce spending further.
If that happens, tens of thousands of new patients, some in countries with no public health networks, will not be served. At stake is this nation's leadership on the global AIDS crisis, a position former President George W. Bush could claim in 2003, when he launched a U.S.-led initiative that put $15 billion into a five-year campaign.
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis kill 5 million people a year, leaving millions of children without parents, aggravating poverty and destabilizing nations. By the end of this year, the world will have 20 million AIDS orphans.
Considering wealth and population, the U.S. spends little on humanitarian aid that can make a huge difference in the lives of millions of people -- and in the perception of the U.S. around the world. Congress and Obama must make good on the commitment to fully fund the Global Fund.
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