UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 5to treatment as well as prevention, and announced:“I propose the creation of a Global Fund, dedicatedto the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectiousdiseases”. Annan called for commitments, a ‘warchest’ of roughly US$ 7 to US$ 10 billion a year fromdeveloping countries and donor countries, over anextended period of time. The sum would cover allwork on AIDS, not just the planned Global Fund.129Nigerian PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo andSalim Ahmed Salim,Secretary-General of theOrganization for AfricanUnity at Abuja SummitEngida Wassie, AfricanUnion CommissionThese figures were based on a paper on resourceneeds for HIV/AIDS that was published in Science 31by a key group of epidemiologists and other experts from UNAIDS and the other organizationsand institutes with whom they collaborated. This ‘policy forum’ estimated that by 2005, theresponse to AIDS would require about US$ 9 billion annually, with half the resources needed insub-Saharan Africa. Importantly, the authors wrote that one third to one half of these resourcescould come from domestic sources, both public and private, with the remainder from internationalsources. The provision of actual costings for AIDS globally was a major breakthrough.Louise Fréchette, former UN Deputy Secretary-General, commented: “The Abuja speech …was part of a strategy … and had been preceded by consultations with the heads of the UNagencies. Suddenly, we were … cranking up the machine … it was a precursor in what becamea much, much more aggressive public campaign”.On 30 April 2001, Annan addressed the Council on Foundations in Philadelphia (with representativesfrom some 1800 US philanthropic foundations), reiterating his proposal to create aGlobal Fund to channel funds for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.In May 2001, the Secretary-General addressed the World Health Assembly, informing them thatplans for the Fund were progressing, and stressed that the Fund must be additional to existingfunds and mechanisms, not just a new way of channelling money already earmarked for development.He also made it clear to UNAIDS that he believed the Fund had to be broader thanAIDS, and asked the UNAIDS Secretariat and WHO to organize a wider consultation in the firstweek of June.On 11 May, US President George W Bush addressed reporters and senior government officialsgathered for the visit of Obasanjo and pledged US$ 200 million to what was still an idea – theGlobal Fund. France and the UK also made pledges of US$ 300 million. Annan personallypledged US$ 100 000 from a prize he had received, which was matched by the InternationalOlympic Committee. In June, pledges of US$ 100 million arrived for the planned Fund fromthe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and US$ 1 million from the Winterthur Insurance/CreditSuisse group.31Schwartländer B, Stover J, Walker N, Bollinger L, Gutierrez J P, McGreevey W, Opuni M, Forsythe S, KumaranaakeL, Watts C, Bertozzi S (2001). ‘Resource needs for HIV/AIDS’. Sciencexpress, June.