# \[e-drug\] MSF response to Global Fund decision to cancel Round 11 funding

**URL:** <https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-msf-response-to-global-fund-decision-to-cancel-round-11-funding/36450>\
**Category:** e-drug\
**Created:** [November 23, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-msf-response-to-global-fund-decision-to-cancel-round-11-funding/36450 "2011-11-23T09:39:27Z")\
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**Author:** ![Joanna\_KEENAN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@Joanna\_KEENAN](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Joanna_KEENAN)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-msf-response-to-global-fund-decision-to-cancel-round-11-funding/36450/1 "2011-11-23T09:39:27Z")

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E-DRUG: MSF response to Global Fund decision to cancel Round 11 funding  
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Please find below a statement that Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) released  
overnight in response to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria  
board's decision to effectively cancel 2011 Round 11 developing country  
proposals due to a lack of funding from wealthy donor countries. The  
decision - made at the Global Fund's board meeting in Accra, Ghana - is  
unprecedented. MSF is calling on donors to urgently commit funding to the  
Global Fund to ensure the continuation of programs.

Medecins Sans Frontieres response to unprecedented decision to cancel  
funding round of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, taken at  
board meeting in Accra, Ghana, November 21-22, 2011

NOVEMBER 22, 2011 -- Because donor funding for global HIV/AIDS and the  
Global Fund has been declining, the Fund is in the most dire financial  
situation it has ever seen since its creation ten years ago. As a result,  
the Global Fund board today decided to effectively cancel its 11th funding  
round due to lack of resources - an unprecedented act in its history.

The Global Fund will provide for a 'transitional funding mechanism,'  
whereby countries known to be facing a disruption of programs for HIV, TB  
and malaria before 2013 will be offered a chance to apply for funding to  
cover their most essential needs. For HIV, this funding can cover medicines  
for people already on treatment, but does not provide for scale-up of HIV  
treatment. Funding will also be restricted for treatment of drug-resistant  
forms of TB.

MSF calls on the Global Fund and donors to immediately raise the resources  
necessary for the minimum lifeline the Fund has extended to countries  
otherwise facing disruptions this year, as well as providing a new regular  
funding opportunity.

The dramatic resource shortfall comes at a time when the latest HIV science  
shows that HIV treatment itself not only saves lives, but is also a  
critical form of preventing the spread of the virus, and governments are  
making overtures that there could be an end to the AIDS epidemic.

Yet on the ground in hard-hit countries where MSF works, the devastating  
effects of the overall funding crunch are becoming apparent - for example,  
Cameroon and Zimbabwe are facing shortfalls in the near future to support  
people already on treatment, and the Democratic Republic of Congo severely  
caps the number of people able to start on life-saving HIV treatment. In  
other countries, such as Mozambique, funding problems have prevented the  
country from providing earlier treatment and better drugs, per  
WHO-recommended guidelines. And further countries may have to put important  
plans on hold, such as Malawi, which in addition to wanting to scale up HIV  
treatment, wants to provide earlier and life-long treatment for all  
HIV-positive pregnant women to not only protect their babies, but keep  
themselves healthy. Some countries, including Kenya, Lesotho, and South  
Africa, had already been told by the Global Fund that they weren't eligible  
to apply for funding from Round 11 because of lacking funding. In those  
countries, HIV treatment coverage lies at 52 percent, 66 percent and 49  
percent, respectively.

'There's a shocking incongruence between both the new HIV science and  
political promises on one hand, and the funding reality that is now hitting  
the ground on the other,' said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, executive  
director of MSF's Access Campaign. 'Donors are really pulling the rug out  
from under people living with HIV/AIDS at precisely the time when we need  
to move full steam ahead and get life-saving treatment to more people. All  
governments must chip in to the effort to curb HIV, but especially those  
with the capacity to really make a difference must urgently step up and  
support a new funding opportunity for countries by the Global Fund.'

Joanna Keenan  
Press Officer  
Access Campaign  
Medecins Sans Frontieres  
T: @joanna\_keenan  
msfaccess.org  
twitter.com/MSF\_access  
facebook.com/MSFaccess  
E: joanna.keenan[at]geneva.msf.org
