The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved US$75 million for HIV screening, prevention and treatment in Mali over the next three years.
According to a press release by the Global Fund made available on Monday (November 26, 2012) an accord has been signed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bamako to resume a full-scale HIV programme including the delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment to some 50,000 people in Mali who are currently living with HIV.
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Mali, Aurélien Agbénonci welcomed the new partnership and said it would be consistent with the country’s national development strategy.
“We also place this intervention in the context of a larger vision and long-term investment in capacity-building, to encourage a national response strategy less dependent on foreign aid in the long-run and therefore more sustainable,” Agbénonci said.
Under the accord, the Global Fund approved funding for US$75 million for HIV screening, prevention and treatment in Mali over the next three years.
Mali’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Tiéman Coulibaly said: “The signing of this agreement involving the Global Fund, the UN Development Programme and Mali brings hope for many of our citizens who can now say they have not been forgotten.”
The programme targets key populations at higher risk and one of its priorities is to intensify efforts to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child and support more systematic voluntary screening of pregnant women.
The Global Fund and its partners took steps to restore confidence in grant management in Mali after mismanagement of funds was discovered.
As a temporary measure, the scope of the Global Fund’s grant was reduced in 2011 to funding of essential services to ensure continuity of treatment for 25,288 people in Mali who were receiving antiretroviral therapy with Global Fund support. Under the arrangement, it was also possible to start new patients on treatment and the total number on treatment has now risen to 30,000.
Mark Edington, head of the Global Fund’s grant management division, said the new funding to expand HIV programmes in Mali is a major step forward and underscores the Global Fund’s commitment to support lifesaving work in the country, particularly at a time when the humanitarian situation requires special attention.
“More than 30,000 people in Mali now get regular treatment and another 20,000 people rely on quality care. We expect these numbers to increase,” Edington said.
The Global Fund has been funding programmes in Mali since the December 2003 and has disbursed approximately US$ 90 million to provide ARV treatment to 30,000 patients, to detect and treat 17,000 smear positive TB patients and to distribute 720,000 long lasting insecticide-treated nets to population in Mali.
In the coming months, the Global Fund expects to sign one malaria and one TB grant.
