Global Fund Reinstates Uganda

Global Fund Reinstates Uganda as New Management of Health Grants is Agreed

New York, Nov 10 2005 6:00PM

The United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has reinstated its five grants to Uganda, after agreeing on action points for restructured national management of the funds.

"Over the past two months, the Global Fund has been heartened by the intensive efforts of our partners in Uganda. We are very pleased that the progress made enables us to lift the suspension of Uganda's grants," Dr. Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said after the agreement with the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, the Principal Recipient (PR), was signed.

The portfolio of grants to Uganda totals $367 million, including two grants to combat HIV/AIDS, two grants targeting malaria and one grant for fighting tuberculosis. Funding for life-preserving programme activities was maintained throughout the suspension.

The portfolio was suspended in August due to concerns about mismanagement by the Project Management Unit (PMU) within the Ugandan Ministry of Health. An independent audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Local Fund Agent for Uganda, found instances of inadequate monitoring of and accounting for expenditures by the PMU for one of Uganda's anti-HIV grants.

These findings led the Global Fund to conclude that payments to all grants managed by the PMU needed to be suspended and new management structures put in place. The PR and Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) were asked to propose a plan for restructuring all the programmes funded under the grant agreements. Their success led to the signing of the Aide-Memoire.

The Global Fund, proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001, is a unique international public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The partnership of governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing.

While Global Fund grants have been used for less than a year and a half so far, substantial results have been achieved, with 220,000 people having been supported with treatment for HIV/AIDS, 600,000 people having received TB treatment and more than 3 million families having received anti-malaria bed nets.

ENDS

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