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P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai, Nov. 12 India has missed the opportunity to get a slice of $2.75 billion worth of funds, recently approved by The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, due to the technical quality of its proposals.

Ironically, the decision to approve 94 global grants worth $2.75 billion over two years was taken by the Fund’s board at its meeting held over the weekend in India. And the chair of the Fund’s board is Mr Rajat Gupta, former chief of global consultant company McKinsey.

India has not been successful this year in applying for the grant, because of the technical quality of the proposals, Mr Nicolas Demey, the Fund’s spokesperson told Business Line from Geneva. The funds disbursed in this round is the highest in the history of the Fund. And, the non-approved proposals from India were worth approximately €254 million (about Rs 1,552 crore) over five years.

However, he added, the country could rectify its proposals as directed by the comments of the review board and re-submit its proposals next May for the next round of disbursements that will be decided in November 2009.

A multilateral funding agency, the Fund was constituted in January 2002 through a partnership of governments and civil society. Proposals sent to the Fund are reviewed by an independent panel of health experts, Mr Demey said, indicating that the Fund did not take a view on the proposals.

Projects seeking financial assistance are sent to the Fund from different countries by their respective country co-ordination mechanism (CCM). The CCM in each country in turn gets the projects from the Government and private organisations. The Indian Ministry of Health and its different arms (like the National Aids Control Organisation) have in the past been a major beneficiary of the Fund, Mr Demey said.

The Fund has till date approved proposals worth $490 million from India. Though the Fund has committed up to $750 million to India, the scale-up will depend on performance on the ground, he added.

The Fund depends on developed countries for its resources and its key donors include the US, Germany, France and Italy among others, all in the grip of the global economic crisis. It is a worry for the Fund, the spokesperson said, adding however that the Fund hoped that donor countries would continue to support its initiatives to tackle the three diseases.

The Fund-supported programmes are estimated to have averted more than 2.5 million deaths by providing AIDS treatment for 1.75 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 3.9 million people, and by distributing 59 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria worldwide, a note from the Fund said.

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