In November 2011, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) announced that its’ next scheduled funding round was cancelled and that no new grants could be funded until 2014.
This news hit just as major scientific breakthroughs and signs of real progress in hard-hit countries were starting to generate the most widespread optimism in the history of the AIDS epidemic. Now, all hopes of entering a new phase of the HIV response are effectively put on hold until at least 2014, and progress on many fronts may actually be reversed. The effects on individuals and communities will be devastating.
This report draws on recently collected field data from numerous countries where the International HIV/AIDS Alliance operates to explain why the funding crisis requires urgent action on the part of Global Fund donors and all other stakeholders. The Alliance’s recommendations for responding to the crisis are based on our analysis of the implications of funding shortfalls in the following specific areas: HIV treatment; HIV prevention; care and support; services for key populations at higher risk of HIV infection; and efforts to create an enabling environment.
Particularly compelling evidence of the need for urgent action comes from in-depth country impact studies in five countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Each of these countries was, until the funding crisis, making strong progress towards reducing HIV infections and AIDSrelated deaths. The country impact studies document the many ways in which these countries’ HIV responses are now endangered