When the last UN General Assembly Special
Session (UNGASS) on AIDS concluded last
July, and the UN Secretary General sent
off a group to work on a plan for the more
than one billion dollars he had raised
to fight epidemics like HIV/AIDS, many
diplomats bemoaned the new layer of bureaucracy.
But, surprising, less than six months later
the Transitional Working Group has announced
that it has finished a framework which
will pave the way for the first disbursements
of $700 million of what has swelled to
a $1.6 billion fund.
Last
April UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan announced
that he would launch a special fund for AIDS. As a
separate entity from the UN, this fund can take donations
specifically to help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Collectively these three diseases account for
25 percent of deaths worldwide. In 2000, three
million people died of AIDS, bring the total
the epidemic has taken so far to 22 million;
Tuberculosis accounted for 1.7 million deaths;
and Malaria killed more then 1 million people,
mostly African children.
At the UNGASS Annan not only appealed for funds
from member nations, but also set up the Transitional
Working Group (TWG), made up of forty representatives
from donor and developing nations, NGO's, corporations
and foundations. This Dec ember the TWG finished
it's preparatory framework, and will soon disband
as the framework document is drafted and operations
begin.
The World Bank will be responsible for the Fund's
financial side, collective, investing and disbursing
the funds as is called upon by the governing
body. Like the TWG the operations will be managed
by a team from diverse backgrounds: developed
and developing nations, public and private sectors.
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