Government Gets 160 Billion to Fight Three Killers

From the Guardian Newspaper May 14

The Global Fund has granted Tanzania US$157.4m (160bn/-) to support the country's initiatives to fight HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Out of the amount, US$54.2m will be used for the treatment of malaria.

The rest of the money will be spent on a national response programme on HIV/Aids, support for orphans and vulnerable children.

It will also be spent on the procurement of condoms, care and treatment of HIV/Aids patients, monitoring, evaluation and national co-ordination.

The agreement between the Global Fund and the government was signed yesterday in Dar es Salaam by Linden Morrison, on behalf of the fund, and Finance Permanent Secretary Gray Mgonja.

Representatives of the recipient non-governmental organisations involved in the HIV/Aids programme - Pact Tanzania, PSI and Amref - were present during the signing.

This is the fourth time Tanzania has received a grant from the Global Fund to support the partnership between public sector and civil society.

Mgonja said unlike in the past when the government was the sole recipient of the financial support, this time round four principal recipients are involved.

The government was allocated US$79.7m and US$54.2m for malaria and HIV/Aids respectively.

Amref Tanzania gets US$13.2m for the care and treatment, Pact Tanzania US$7.9m for orphans and vulnerable children and PSI, which is responsible for the procurement of condoms, will receive US$2.3m.

In the treatment of malaria, the grant will be used to procure anti-malaria drugs known as Cortem for a period of three years.

The drug will be manufactured for non-profit health facilities to treat about 80 per cent of the malaria cases.

Mgonja said interventions in care and treatment of people living with HIV/Aids would be scaled up in the national care and treatment plan to reduce morbidity and mortality rates by increasing access to anti-retroviral drugs and expansion of voluntary counselling and testing services.

He said this would be attained through the reduction of transmission of HIV in 121 districts on the Mainland by linking HIV prevention and care services and strengthening the capacity of the actors to co-ordinate, plan for, monitor and evaluate the scaled up comprehensive HIV care.

The grant will also be used to monitor the impact of the care and treatment programme at the community level and in the whole of Tanzania.

About orphans and vulnerable children, the Fund will provide support in 24 new districts to complement the government's initiatives.

This will be done in partnership with civil society and religious organisations through local government councils through which 300,000 children will benefit. Mgonja stated that the Government of Tanzania "cherished its growing relationship with civil Society".

The grant will be used to procure adequate supply for condoms and social marketing of condoms to prevent new infection through sexual transmission. This is intended to reduce new infections.

Mgonja said the Tanzania Commission for Aids (Tacaids) would be responsible for the co-ordination and reporting of the implementation of all the activities funded by the Global Fund, while the responsible ministries will collaborate with the recipients in the implementation of the activities.

'The government of Tanzania remains overall responsible in ensuring that the funds are used and accounted for according to the planned activities' he said.

The Global Fund representative said his organisation was impressed by the government's way of co-operation with the civil society.

Morrison said the government's partnership with the civil society was one of the criteria that enabled Tanzania's proposal for funding get the Global Fund nod.

'This is model we would like all countries to follow for an effective fight of the three enemies - HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria,' he said.

Since Global Fund was established in 2002, Tanzania has been successful in three out of four applications for funding totalling US$405m.

Story by Joyce Mkinga