§ 1. Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)If he will make a statement on the progress made by the global fund for health.[124272]
§ The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Hilary Benn)To date, the global fund has committed US $1.5 billion to more than 150 programmes in 93 countries, including the provision of anti-retrovirals in Haiti, Honduras and Rwanda, the expansion of tuberculosis treatment in China and Mongolia and the distribution of bed nets to prevent malaria in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. The UK strongly supported the creation of the fund and we have committed $280 million over the years 2002—08. We are working with the secretariat and other supporters of the fund to develop measures that we can all use to evaluate progress over the longer term.
§ Mr. GerrardDoes my hon. Friend agree that it is essential that the fund develops the potential to really turn around the HIV, TB and malaria epidemics, and that to do that we need more countries to put their money and their faith into the fund so that individual countries do not try to impose their own priorities and monitoring mechanisms on the fund? Does he further agree that, especially where they are members of the board, they should work through the board to establish internationally agreed criteria for its work?
§ Hilary BennI agree very much with the point that my hon. Friend makes. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to his work as chair of the all-party group on AIDS. He is right: in supporting the creation of the fund it is important to ensure that it works alongside the existing bilateral programmes and the other UN agencies which are trying to fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS, in particular, and TB and malaria. We want the fund to add to the effectiveness of the work that is currently being undertaken. That is one of the issues 1142 that we are pursuing in providing support and encouragement, and indeed additional funding, to the fund, as was announced at the G8 summit at Evian.
§ Tony Worthington (Clydebank and Milngavie)Recently, President Bush announced that $10 billion was to go into AIDS work, which is marvellous news, and I wholeheartedly endorse it. However, he announced that only $1 billion was to go into the multilateral fund and that $9 billion was to go to a handful of countries as long as they accepted conditions such as taking genetically modified food. Will my hon. Friend use his influence to persuade the Americans that multilateral effort is the way ahead? That is why the global health fund was set up and we must back it to the fullest possible extent.
§ Hilary BennI agree with my hon. Friend's point about the importance of the multilateral route. However, it is not entirely clear what precise amounts the Americans will make available for the global fund; that will depend partly on decisions of Congress and partly on the extent to which other countries increase their contributions because of the conditions that have been set. It is really important that we ensure that we support the existing work of the multilateral institutions because we do not want, in promoting the fund, to add to the difficulties that Governments in developing countries face in trying to make sure that they can access the funding and support that is available from all those sources. That is why it is so important that country Governments and the multinational institutions actually work together.