Global Fund chiefs advise African leaders on health

Jun 05, 2007

AFRICAN countries should spend at least 15% of their national budgets on health if HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, are to be fought significantly, the head of global partnerships at the Global Fund office in Geneva has said.

By Harriette Onyalla
and Alice Kiingi


AFRICAN countries should spend at least 15% of their national budgets on health if HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, are to be fought significantly, the head of global partnerships at the Global Fund office in Geneva has said.

Dr. Kingsley Moghalu last week told a Global Fund meeting for East Africa and Indian Ocean countries at Serena Hotel in Kampala that political will and effective leadership was essential for disease and poverty eradication.

“Effective implementation of these programmes is what will actually save the lives of Africans living with or affected by these diseases. African countries should prioritise concrete, results-oriented political leadership to ensure effective performance of national and internationally supported programmes,” Moghalu said.

He also suggested that the programmes should be implemented using national systems and frameworks.

“We should have home-made solutions to these problems to enhance sustainability, with focus on national efforts such as the development of systems and manpower training,” Moghalu stated.

He said the Global Fund had committed $7b for 450 programmes across the world but 60% of the money was meant for Africa.

“In order to effectively combat the three pandemics and achieve the millennium development goals, it is important that Africa and the Global Fund coordinate the implementation of programmes financed by the Fund.”

Nosa Orabaton, the operations director, said most African countries lacked information about the financing needs of the Global Fund.

Orabaton said the Fund will increasingly be a demand-led process dictated by the ability of recipient countries to utilise large-scale resources.

“With you in the driver’s seat, you are at liberty to be creative and deploy home-grown approaches to ensure a better lives for your people,” he said.

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