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Wealthy nations accused of AIDS funding shortfall

Posted on: Thursday, 1 June 2006, 20:05 CDT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - AIDS advocates accused wealthy nations on Thursday of falling behind on a 2005 pledge to greatly step up their contributions to global programs set up to combat the pandemic in developing countries.

A looming shortfall in international donors' funding for AIDS treatment and related programs represents "a scandalous betrayal" of the commitments made by the Group of Eight industrialized nations at a summit in Gleneagles Scotland last July, said Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The G8 meeting promised stepped-up development aid would ensure AIDS treatment for all who need it by 2010. While 2010 is still four years away, advocacy groups say it appears the money behind the promise is not materializing.

Richard Burzynski of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations said the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the main vehicle for funding AIDS treatment in poor nations, already faced a $2.1 billion shortfall for this year and next year alone.

While the fund hoped to hand out at least $2.8 billion in treatment grants this year and $2.7 billion in 2007, it so far had pledges of just $1.9 billion for 2006 and $1.5 billion for 2007, he said.

Lewis, Burzynski and other activists spoke at a news conference on the sidelines of a three-day U.N. conference that is weighing changes in the global strategy against AIDS adopted by world governments five years ago.

The Geneva-based global fund, which is administered independently and has no formal ties to the United Nations, was set up in January 2002 and is already the single largest source of subsidies for global AIDS programs.

In 2005 it was responsible for about a fifth of all international funding for programs to combat the disease.

"People are being kept alive by the global fund," said Lewis. If the money falls short, "people die. This is simply a matter of life and death," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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