THE Global Fund Executive Director is in Zimbabwe assessing the country’s programming and challenges faced in the implementation of HIV, TB and Malaria programmes.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
Mr Peter Sands becomes the first executive director for the organisation which gave Zimbabwe USD500 million for the period of 2021 to 2023 to visit the country.
I’m also conscious Zimbabwe is part of the top 10 in which the global fund invests in the world, and I think I’m the first executive director of the global fund to actually visit Zimbabwe and I’m very certain I’m the first to visit Bulawayo which Im also delighted to do that.
“This afternoon will be a lot of meetings around the programming of things but even more important tomorrow, I will have the opportunity to see some of the actual work being done and get a real sense of both the practicality of it and also some of the implementation challenges. It’s really important for us based in Geneva not just to be reading the PowerPoint slides and hearing people describe things but to get the real sense of things on the ground,” he said.
He said as Global Fund they were impressed in the country’s progress in the fight against TB, AIDS and Malaria over the years.
“In the current grant period and our grant lasts 3 years, the allocation for Zimbabwe was USD477 million and what we have seen in Zimbabwe is very significant progress in fighting HIV, TB and Malaria. Zimbabwe is one of the very few countries that have succeeded to getting 95 percent of HIV Positive on antiretroviral treatment. That is a significant achievement.
“Zimbabwe’s treatment success rate on tb compares very favourably with some of the advanced healthcare systems in the world. If you look at the story on malaria, we’ve seen an 84percent reduction in Malaria incidence and 74 percent reduction in malaria deaths. These are achievements which I think everybody is involved that is the partners, implementing partners, the Zimbabwean government and we as the Global Fund should be very proud of. These are achievements making enormous differences in the lives of people of Zimbabwe,” he said.
With Zimbabwe due to submit its proposal by March 31, Mr Sander said his visit comes in the heart of the process in which the specific program submissions are being made around how the USD500 million is going to be invested.
He said the progress made should not make the country relax.
“But the battle isn’t won yet. HIV, TB and malaria are formidable adversaries. If you are not winning against them, you are losing because they fight back. And there are still too many infections in HIV. There are still particularly drug resistant cases of TB which people are dying from and there are still much smaller numbers of people dying from malaria, mainly children,” he said.
“The focus in the next three year cycle of our partnership will be very much on reducing the incidence of new cases for HIV, really trying much to get to elimination of malaria, that’s the ambition. And particularly focussing on the drug resistant forms of TB. The global fund has allocated for this next cycle USD500million to Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe was commended for its advocacy support and financial towards the Global Fund’s sixth replenishment.
“Zimbabwe paid too well, one in advocacy to persuade donors to give the money and it also pledged a million dollars itself. I reckon better deals that Zimbabwe has done that it contributes a million dollars and gets USD500 million. Not a bad deal. But I think it’s indicative of Zimbabwe’s commitment to improving the health of the people. That it wants to be a supporter of the global fund and not just a recipient,” said Mr Sands.
