Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, meeting today in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has approved $359 million in new fund over two years for programmes to prevent and treat HIV in the developing world. Grants totaling $623 million were approved this week.
However, approximately $78 million of the HIV-related project proposals will need to be confirmed in January, according to the Global Fund, because more information on many of the proposals is needed.
The Fund also confirmed that it would make a further round of grants in June 2004.
The announcement appears to represent a victory for those who have argued that the Fund should press ahead with its grant making, despite US concerns over the capacity of countries to absorb large amounts of money.
The US and British governments had urged the board of the Global Fund to make no further grant decisions in 2003 in order to allow a better picture to emerge of how much money will be available to distribute, according to a report in The Boston Globe today.
However, a senior World Health Organisation spokesman said that any delay would be disastrous. Jim Yong Kim told the Globe: “Round four has to be right away. There's enough money to start."
Earlier this week it emerged that the Fund was planning to borrow $101 million from next year’s donations to fund the second 2003 grant round, due to an expected shortfall.