The 8 th conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria (GFATM) for the Asia-Pacific opened in Hanoi on Sept. 27, with
over 200 delegates from 15 countries and territories worldwide, and
international organisations taking part.
Addressing
the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen
affirmed GFATM’s positive and effective contributions to countries in
Asia-Pacific and the world, including Vietnam.
Xuyen
said that Vietnam has so far received 164.8 million USD in aid from
GFATM as well as technical and professional assistance from senior
experts.
She reported that GFATM has committed a
total of 193 million USD in aid for Vietnam projects in the rounds of
2004-2008, 2008-2012, 2010-2014 and 2011-2015 to help the country
prevent and combat HIV/AIDS.
In 2004, the project
was launched in 20 cities and provinces with the highest rates of
HIV/AIDS infection. Then, in 2010, it was expanded to 31 cities and
provinces and in 2011, to 50 cities and provinces.
Regarding the tuberculosis prevention programme, the aid of over 80
million USD funded by GFATM has actively contributed to raising public
awareness of the disease and, together with Vietnam’s tuberculosis
prevention programme, was helping to eliminate the disease in the
country, she said.
Since 2005, the malaria prevention programme has received almost 46 million USD in committed aid from the GFATM.
At the three-day event, delegates shared existing challenges in
implementing projects and discussed experience in managing the financial
risk to GFATM-funded projects.
Established in 2002
in Geneva, the non-profit GFATM annually provides funding of nearly 1
billion USD for activities to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
in 140 countries and territories./.
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