750 million dollars available from Global Fund to combat AIDS, TB, malaria – Mozambique

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750 million dollars available from Global Fund to combat AIDS, TB, malaria – Mozambique

9:45 CAT | 22 Jan 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved about 750 million US dollars for the battle against the three diseases in Mozambique.

It is now up to the Mozambican Coordination Mechanism for the Global Fund to draw up specific projects to gain access to the money that is now available. To this end, health specialists met in Maputo on Tuesday for a national dialogue to coordinate follow-up actions.

Speaking to reporters at the start of the two day event, the Deputy Chairperson of the Coordination Mechanism, Francisco Mbofana, said “We are meeting as part of the task of drawing up requests for financing from the Global Fund. The Fund provides budgets to support countries fighting these diseases, and 750 million dollars has already been approved for Mozambique”.

The coordination mechanism consists of representatives of the government, the private sector, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and partners of the health service. In the current dialogue, its challenge is to form a basis of common understanding about concrete and priority actions, in order to gain access to the funding and use it to attack the three diseases which are all serious public health problems for the country.

For Mbofana, what is essential is to reduce the incidence of AIDS, TB and malaria, which implies increased prevention efforts, and investing in strengthening the health system at all levels, giving priority to the key vulnerable strata of the population, who are mostly to be found in the rural areas.

“The financing requests should be aligned with the needs and priorities of the country”, he said, “and must aim at the key population affected by endemic diseases”.

Access to financing from the Global Fund is only possible by submitting consistent projects that have been discussed in a forum for national dialogue in each country, in an initial phase, and then pass through assessment by the Global Fund itself to judge their viability.

The allocation of 750 million dollars to Mozambique results from a decision of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund taken in November 2019. Mozambique has until May of this year to submit its requests.

Mozambique has a high level of incidence of all three diseases. More than 2.5 million Mozambicans are HIV-positive, tuberculosis annually affects about 150,000 people, while there are around ten million cases of malaria diagnosed a year. Between them, these diseases represent an enormous public health burden.

Source: AIM