Global Fund to Fight Illnesses Issues Checks to Three Nations

The $2.2 billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has issued its first checks, for programs in Ghana, Haiti and Tanzania, as officials try to demonstrate the effectiveness and accountability necessary to attract the billions more needed to stem the devastating epidemics.

Such accountability was put to the test last month, when the fund held up a two-year, $12 million grant for an innovative malaria-prevention program in Tanzania after the country's finance ministry made a last-minute demand that the funds be deposited in the ministry's account, rather than the health program account itself. After fund officials rejected the revised terms because of the potential for corruption and delays, the ministry relented, and an agreement was signed in Dar es Salaam during the weekend.

The Global Fund, based in Geneva, was established early this year as an independent body by the world's industrial nations. The executive director of the Global Fund, Richard Feachem, has been on a worldwide fundraising tour in conjunction with World AIDS Day. This week, he is in Washington to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration and congressional leaders. The fund has issued a call for an additional $2 billion for next year and $4.6 billion for 2004. Feachem said "a reasonable contribution" from the United States during that period might be $2.5 billion to $3 billion. "We are looking for a greatly increased contribution from the US, alongside others," Feachem said. The United States, the fund's largest donor, has pledged $500 million.

The recently issued checks are part of a first round of 37 projects approved in April. A second round, to be approved in January, will effectively exhaust the fund's current resources. The first slate of projects is intended to demonstrate the fund's ability to work with private organizations as well as governments. Compliance with the grant agreements is to be audited by KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.