4 July 2006
The Partnership Forum is an important structure in the architecture of the Global Fund and has significant implications for the replenishment process. It is within this context that I wish to make a comment or two on the Partnership Forum.
I wish to acknowledge that the Partnership Forum was approached with a sense of seriousness it deserves and the structure of the meeting allowed for a meaningful participation by all. It was indeed a success.
South Africa would like to see the strengthening of this important process, firstly by replicating it in-country through national partnership fora, which would extend participation. We can also strengthen this process by giving due recognition to the role of government in the process. Sadly, the evaluation of the Partnership Forum was silent with respect to recognizing the role of government.
I have referred to our National Health Act that provides for the establishment of a Consultative Health Forum, a legislative framework that accords all stakeholders a platform to express themselves with regard to all health issues including HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It is within this legislative framework that we will establish a national partnership forum and also reconsider our country coordinating mechanism model.
As South Africans we are indeed honoured to have hosted the mid-term review of the Global Fund Replenishment. This is particularly important since we are part of a region that is highly affected by Tuberculosis, Malaria and HIV and AIDS and a significant number of countries in our region are beneficiaries of the Global Fund.
Financial resources from the Global Fund have become an important and necessary part of health spending in many countries in the African region and other countries of the south, in particular the poorest countries. Predictable and sustainable financing is one of the major determinants of success in scaling up of interventions for Malaria, Tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support.
UNAIDS estimates that between 20 and 23 billion US dollars is needed annually to support scaling up of HIV and AIDS responses in low- and middle-income countries by 2010. This figure is certainly significantly higher when estimates for Tuberculosis and Malaria over the same period are factored in.
The Global Fund estimates the funding gap to be 800 million US dollars for Round 6 and 2.1 billion US dollars for 2006-2007.
We acknowledge that donors have a number of competing priorities for limited funds, and that they also have a variety of channels to get their funding to the end recipients, including through bilateral funding arrangements. However, we believe it is imperative that the Global Fund is fully funded in order to fully fund Round 6 and frequent rounds in subsequent years.
At the replenishment conference in London, we emphasized the need for countries with a potential to contribute significantly to do so and in this regard the Global Fund was tasked to mobilize additional contributions and to report on progress at this mid-term review.
I therefore encourage our development partners to be generous today and tomorrow as well as in the future, open your hearts and wallets and fund this gap. Failure to do so will have very grave consequences for the future of humanity.
It is important for the Global Fund to demonstrate its added value. It has to continuously prove that it is an effective and premium mechanism to channel donor resources in order to encourage donors to see it as a funding channel of choice in response to the three diseases.
Donors and recipients have a joint responsibility for ensuring that the Global Fund has sufficient resources. We must hold true to our commitment to ensure that no fully-costed national plan is left unfunded.
I have repeatedly said that as recipient countries we must bear part of the responsibility to close this funding gap by allocating in an incremental manner, domestic funds in our own budgets, for a sustainable comprehensive response.
South Africa remains committed to increasing investment of domestic resources. An example is that our Comprehensive HIV and AIDS plan is 90% financed through domestic funding. Budget allocation has tripled over the last four years from just over 1 billion rand in 2002 to1.9 billion rand in 2003 and to 2.9 billion rand in 2004 and 3.5 billion rand in 2005.
We further remain committed to supporting the Global Fund consistent with our potential and ability to do so. We have so far pledged 10 million US dollars over a period of five years from 2003 to 2007. As a gesture of this commitment, I wish to announce that the South African Government will pledge an additional One Million South African Rand, in this current financial year.
As we deliberate today and tomorrow about replenishment for 2008 and beyond, we challenge all partners to ensure maximum predictability and sustainability of financing national plans in response to the three diseases.
Thank you very much for your time.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health
Contact
Sibani Mngadi
0827720161
or
Charity Bhengu
0845212035