Uganda’s Application For AIDS Grant To Be Approved

Apr 29, 2002

Uganda’s application for a grant from the Global AIDS Fund is to be speedily approved as soon as the authors make the required adjustments, officials have said.

By Charles Wendo and Grace MatsikoUganda’s application for a grant from the Global AIDS Fund is to be speedily approved as soon as the authors make the required adjustments, officials have said.Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, the chairman of the Fund and Uganda’s National Political Commissar, on Thursday announced the first round of grants totalling $238 million for 40 projects in 31 countries.Uganda was not on the list of approved grants. However, Kiyonga said the fund’s board had set up a fast-track process to approve the grant provided Uganda met “certain conditions.” Uganda requested for $52million, of which $22million is to be spent in the first year.Kiyonga said in a press release, that Uganda was put in the second category of grant applicants, together with 11 other countries, whose applications were acceptable except for a few technicalities.In principle Uganda’s grant application was okayed but the authors were given six weeks to make some adjustments so that they could get the money without waiting for the next board meeting.The announcement came at the end of a three-day board meeting chaired by Kiyonga, which based the pronouncement on the advice of a 17-man technical review committee. The committee where TASO Director Dr. Alex Coutinho sits, vetted a total of 322 proposals.Health minister Brig. Jim Muhwezi and the Director General of Health Services, Prof. Francis Omaswa, represented Uganda at the meeting in New York.Ends

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