Global Fund ED visits Paraguay

Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, travelled to Paraguay to attend the regional meeting and sign a new agreement for €3.5 million in order to fund HIV/AIDS programmes.

Amongst many acknowledgements of gratitude and providing a balance of the Global Fund in the region, its Executive Director, Professor Michel Kazatchkine, participated in a round of questions and answers with the participants at the Regional Meeting.

Following the presentation he met with Paraguay’s Minster of Health, Esperanza Martinez, to sign a new agreement for €3.5 million that is designated to fund programmes for prevention, diagnosing and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

“We have seen an extraordinary change in terms of health world-wide. The key factor was understanding the unacceptable gaps between the North and South countries”, stated Kazatchkine at the beginning of his presentation, in which he gave an analysis of the panorama in the region related to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In his analysis he said that 2010 “will be an absolutely critical year” as in addition to presenting the new structure, it will be a year of transition in which the Global Fund will become an autonomous institution. In reference to these changes Kazatchkine assured that the CCMs will occupy a very important place in advocacy.

“Five of the eight Millennium Development Goals are directly or indirectly related to health”, he maintained and assured that currently the Global Fund "has become the most important global funder" in terms of health.

“The model is very attractive because of its pillars and you are the ones who implement your proposals”, he explained. Thus, he persistently asked the representatives from the CCMs to make a commitment to successfully achieve the goals. “Keep working, manifesting, expressing your needs and be an advocate. The Global Fund is making a difference and this saves lives. And the Global Fund is you”, he expressed.

In the signing of the agreement with Paraguay, Kazatchkine insisted on a request for greater commitment from the regional CCMs in order to successfully reach the millennium goals linked to health: “With this signing, I have no doubts that the millennium objectives will be achieved by Paraguay. And they must be achieved for all countries in all of Latin America because they have potential”.

By Alejandra Ruffo
Key Correspondents Team – Asuncion, 9/12/09

The Global Fund and Paraguay sign a new agreement

The Global Fund pledges €3.5 million for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV and AIDS in Paraguay.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Centre for Information and Resource Development signed an agreement today for €3.5 million over two years to support HIV and AIDS programmes.

This grant will allow Paraguay to increase its care and treatment interventions for persons living with HIV in six of its health regions.

“I am pleased to be joined by Dr. Agustin Carrizosa, Executive Director of the CIRD to sign Paraguay’s Round 8 agreement with the Global Fund,” said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, who travelled to Asuncion to attend the Regional Meeting of the Global Fund and to sign the agreement with Paraguay.

“This agreement reflects the strengths of Paraguay to expand access to HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment and their continued efforts to fight against this epidemic,” he added.

Paraguay is a country of 6 million inhabitants, in which 21,000 are living with HIV/AIDS. Its HIV prevalence rate is 0.6 percent. Paraguay has another grant from the Global Fund that began in 2007 and that successfully provided ARV treatment to 1,857 persons.

The grant that was signed today is for a total of €12 million over five years and will be implemented by the CIRD Foundation. The programmes supported by the Global Fund and covered by this grant will include treatment services for HIV and AIDS, treatment for Sexually Transmitted Infections, Information on Behaviour Changes, an increase in community-based participation in the national response, amongst others.

Currently, the Global Fund has approved grants for $16.1 million world-wide in 140 countries since its creation in 2002. The Global Fund actually provides one fourth of all international funding for AIDS as well as two-thirds of the funding for tuberculosis and malaria.

The Global Fund supports programmes that provide services to hundreds of millions of people. As a result, more than 4 million lives have been saved to date all over the world. 3,000 deaths have been prevented every day. The general results of the programmes supported by the Global Fund world-wide include:

· 2.3 million people currently under antiretroviral treatment (ARV)
· 5.4 million people currently under effective treatment against tuberculosis
· 88 insecticide treated nets distributed to protect families against malaria
· 79 million people who were provided with HIV counselling and who underwent HIV testing
· 537,000 seropositive pregnant women who were provided prophylaxis treatment to prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV
· 110 million people who were provided with community-based information services
· 3.7 million orphans who received basic support

Global Fund press release
Key Correspondents Team – Asuncion, 9/12/09