Fund The Right to Health -- Fund the Global Fund

September 28 2010, Nairobi Kenya

FROM: Kenyan civil society organizations, including:
Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN), National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), Action Aid International, Health GAP Int’l, Health Rights Advocacy Forum (HERAF), Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) Kenya, Medical Care Development International- Kenya, Nairobi Network of Post-Test Clubs (NNEPOTEC), Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO), Kenya Consortium to fight AIDS TB and Malaria (Kecofatuma), AIDS Law Project Kenya, Kibera Post Test Club (KIPOTECT),Kenya The Association of People with AIDS in Kenya (TAPWAK), Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA), AIDS & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), Kenya NGOs Alliance Against Malaria (KeNAAM), and Kenya Network of Women Living With HIV & AIDS (KENWA).

TO: Donor and Implementing country governments, including: Government of Kenya: Minister of Finance Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta; Minster of Public Health Hon. Beth Mugo; Minister of Medical Services Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o; Minister of State for Planning and National Development and Vision 2030 Hon. Wycliffe Ambesta; Minister of State for Special Programmes,Hon. Esther Murugi Mathenge; National AIDS Coordinating Council Director Prof. Alloys Orago; National STI ControlProgramme heads Dr Mohammed Ibrahim and Dr. Nicholas Muraguri AND Donor Nations from Around the World: including Acting PEPFAR Country Coordinator and CDC Global AIDS Programme Coordinator Nancy Knight; DfID Country DirectorAlastair Fernie; JICA Lead Health Sector Advisor Makiko Kinoshita (Japan)

We, members of Civil Society Organizations, Persons Living with HIV, Tuberculosis patients and communities working on health and human rights issues from across the country are uniting in a week of action, including events in more than20 countries in Africa and around the world, calling on donors to fully fund the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). The Third Replenishment of the Global Fund will be held in New York from 4-5th October 2010, bringing donors together to pledge their three-year investments to the Global Fund. The replenishment must raise at least $20 billion if the extraordinary gains made by the Global Fund over the past decade are to be sustained and accelerated to achieve Universal Access to HIV prevention and treatment.

In particular, we call on President Obama, a son and friend of Kenya, to keep his promise to invest $50 billion in the fight against AIDS by 2013. The U.S. must pledge at least $6 billion to the Global Fund at the Replenishment Conference. The UK should make an additional contribution of at least £840 over the replenishment period. France’s additional EUR€60 million annually is unacceptably low — given the €100 million annual increase promised by President Sarkozy’s Administration in June. This must be rectified immediately. We call on PM Merkel to reject the German Development Minister’s alarming plans to cut Germany’s contribution to the Fund by 60% and potentially to stop all funding after FY2011. Japanese PM Kan’s USD$800 million contribution is a full $1 billion short of Japan’s fair share. Canada’s 20%increase is woefully inadequate. Spain has not yet contributed, and Italy hasn’t even paid its overdue 2009 contribution. To reach the $20 billion needed, all donors must at least DOUBLE contributions over past levels, instead of the paltry 20% increases seen now. African civil society demands at all these rich countries keep the promises they’ve made at Gleneagles and beyond and fully fund the Global Fund to achieve Universal Access. We are also demanding increased transparency, accountability and efficiency in the use of Global Fund funding on the part of the government of Kenya and all African governments.

• All Kenyans are rightly proud of the progressive Bill of Rights in our strong new constitution, and we today call for our new right to health under Section 43 to be fully implemented. We call on Kenya and all African governments to accelerate progress towards meeting their long overdue commitments under the African Union’s Abuja Declaration of 2001.

• We applaud the Government of Kenya’s commitment to increase overall domestic funding for AIDS and overall health by 40% by 2013, signed by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta December 16, 2009 in Kenya’s PEPFAR Partnership Framework.

We also appreciate PEPFAR-Kenya’s commitment in the same contract to endeavor to increase overall U.S. funding against AIDS in Kenya. In particular, civil society praises the Government of Kenya for meeting or exceeding the various budget increases contained in the PEPFAR Partnership Framework for the first year, and strongly urges the Kenyan officials to sustain this progress for the remaining three years of the agreement. These increases count towards Kenya’s commitment to dedicate at least 15% of the national budget to health, promised when they committed to the African Union’s Abuja Declaration in 2001. Less than 10 years after the establishment of the Global Fund, it has saved more than 6 million lives; and every day, a further 3600 deaths are prevented through investment in programmes that have provided 2.5 million people with treatment for HIV and AIDS, treated 6 million people with live-saving drugs for TB, and distributed 104 million bed nets for malaria. We note with grave concern that some donors are avoiding commitments they have made to achieve Universal Access by scaling back contributions to the Global Fund. This will have a severe impact on communities devastated by HIV. A report by the World Bank states that reducing spending on HIV treatment and prevention will reverse recent gains and require costly offsetting measures over the longer term. In Kenya, Global Fund and PEPFAR funding have been a key part of supporting more than 343,000 people HIV treatment.

Global Fund monies have detected 98,070 new TB cases and treated and 4,642,220 nets distributed. Progress made in the fight against the three diseases in Kenya and throughout sub Saharan Africa is encouraging but fragile. If adequately funded, the Global Fund and countries can eliminate malaria in endemic areas, virtually eliminating new HIV infections and transmission of HIV to newborns, and achieve significant declines in TB prevalence and mortality by 2015. These interventions have far-reaching benefits across the health system, including massive contributions to decreasing child and maternal mortality, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. We demand that governments commit to the health of communities across the world by increasing their financial contribution to the Global Fund and raising the USD$20 billion at the Third Voluntary Global Fund Replenishment.