WASHINGTON - April 27 - This weekend, six million people in urgent need of essential Aids drugs face betrayal by world leaders. The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria starts two days of meetings in Geneva today, and ActionAid can reveal it is not getting the heavyweight political support it needs.

The Fund requires at least $8bn a year to continue helping those affected by the world’s three major diseases of poverty. So far, the UK government is the only major donor to declare its support. Without commitment from other countries, the Fund is unlikely to announce any new grants to fight HIV/Aids in 2006.

Failure to announce a new round of grants will have a devastating impact on the Global Fund’s momentum and 26 projects, whose grants expire at the end of the year, will be halted. It will also fatally stall the 2005 G8 Gleneagles commitment to universal access to Aids treatment for all who need it by the end of 2010.

Jess Worth, ActionAid HIV/Aids campaigner said: “Lack of movement now will mean a great betrayal. With just four years to go before the 2010 deadline, 2006 is a key funding year in the fight against HIV/Aids.

“Money has to start flowing in significant quantities now, otherwise all commitments will fail. The millions living with HIV who need drugs, and whose hopes have been raised by the commitments made during 2005, will see them dashed.”

The Global Fund’s 2006 round of grants is essential to the success of the G8 2010 universal access target. Drugs programmes supported by the Global Fund ensure that nearly ½ million people are on anti retroviral treatment – it supports one out of every three people currently receiving treatment in poor countries.

Even if new grants are announced and committed this year, there is a time delay between signing agreements and disbursing funds. This means that countries applying for money to scale up treatment towards universal access will have to wait until next year for funding. If the 2006 round does not go ahead, it is hard to see any way that the 2010 treatment target can be met.

Notes for Editors

1. The Global Fund was initiated by Kofi Annan and launched by the G8 in 2001 to provide significant new money for developing countries against the three major communicable diseases of poverty, Aids, TB and Malaria.

2. A briefing paper “3…2...1…Gone” is available on http://www.actionaid.org/325/hivaids.html

3. ActionAid International works in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to fight global poverty and to tackle its underlying causes – injustice and inequity.  

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