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Global
Fund declines Zimbabwe request for TB, Malaria funding
Ndimyake Mwakalyelye, Voice of America (VOA)
November 13, 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2007-11-13-voa58.cfm
The Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said Tuesday it had rejected proposals
from Zimbabwe's for further grants to combat TB and malaria.
Global Fund Communications
Officer Nicolas Demey said grant proposals submitted by Zimbabwe
seeking a total of US$48.5 million for malaria and US$25.5 million
for tuberculosis over a five year period were turned down for technical
weaknesses.
He said he could not
determine whether Zimbabwe had also applied for another grant to
fight AIDS, noting that proposals go through stages before reaching
a technical review panel which recommends successful proposals to
the Fund's board.
Neither Zimbabwean Health
Minister David Parirenyatwa nor any other senior official in the
national health system could be reached immediately for comment.
To date the Global Fund
has turned down Zimbabwean proposals in five of seven funding rounds.
However, to date the Fund has disbursed around US$35 million with
approximately US$50 million more pending disbursement to Harare.
So far in 2007 the Global
Fund has approved 73 new grants for a total of US$1.1 billion, the
highest in any single year since its creation in 2002. To date the
Fund has made grants totaling some US$10 billion to the benefit
of 136 countries.
Fund Executive Director
David Kazatchkine said the billion-dollar mark attained this year
reflected "high-quality demand for resources," a trend
to be encouraged.
Fund figures show AIDS
and malaria accounting for 48% and 42%, respectively, of the funding
approved, with tuberculosis grants accounting for 10%.
Demey rejected the charge
which has often been leveled against the Fund that its rejection
of the latest Zimbabwean applications was political, given the significant
declines in Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence rate in recent years.
He told reporter Ndimyake
Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the Fund encouraged
Harare reapply to the next round to run in March-June 2008.
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