Malawi pledges $500 000 to Global Fund

The Global Fund has announced that Malawi has pledged $500 000 (about K225 million) at the launch of the Fund’s Fourth Replenishment in Washington DC earlier this week.

The Global Fund announced that its replenishment launch meeting had gathered US$12 billion, a 30 percent increase over the $9.2 billion in firm pledges secured in 2010 for the 2011-2013 period.

Malawi is among several African nations that have contributed to the Global Fund at the replenishment launch.

The Global Fund described the contributions as a significant trend in increased domestic investment in health by African nations which is highlighting efforts to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Nigeria has committed $1 billion for investments in treatment, care and prevention for people affected by the diseases as part of the “Saving One Million Lives” campaign begun by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan last year.

At the launch of the Global Fund’s Fourth Replenishment in Washington DC, Nigerian Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala announced $150 million in new investments in HIV prevention and treatment in Nigeria.

This year, as UNAIDS reported, low and middle income countries are for the first time providing more funding themselves for HIV than they are getting from external sources.

In addition, Okonjo-Iweala also announced a $30 million contribution to the Global Fund.

Four other African countries also made pledges to the Global Fund. These are Kenya ($2 million); Zimbabwe ($1 million); Malawi ($500,000) and Cote d’Ivoire which announced it will contribute $ 6.4 million through the debt-swap Global Fund Debt2Health initiative.

The Ministry of Health working with partners, created a new PMTCT [prevention of mother to child transmission] strategy which is named “Option B+”. Under this programme, every HIV-positive pregnant woman, regardless of her CD 4 count, is started on life-long antiretroviral therapy therapy.

In the second quarter of 2011, when Option B+ was launched, there were 1 257 women who had started ARV therapy.