§ Mr. David Stewart:To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans his Department has to help secure the long-term future of the Global Fund. [141499]
§ Hilary Benn:The UK is intensifying its efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as set out in the recently published Call for Action. The UK was a prime mover in setting up the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) and we very much want it to be successful as one of a number of instruments in the fight to tackle these three terrible diseases. The long-term future of the fund will be decided by its ability to achieve good results. We and other partners are therefore working closely with the fund to help to increase its effectiveness.
The UK recognises that in order to be secure and to be able to plan well, the fund needs to have long-term stability of funding. We therefore extended our current commitment through to 2008 bringing our total contribution to the GFATM to US$280 million. Funding will be subject to the GFATM reflecting a clear poverty focus, achieving a better financing system, integrating the fund's activities more effectively with national programmes and meeting agreed benchmarks to monitor its effectiveness. We have been working closely with the fund on all of these issues and made some good progress at the recent Board meeting held in October—particularly on improving the financing system by moving to a more reliable system of replenishment based on commonly agreed performance measures. Good results will encourage increased contributions to the Global Fund—both from the UK and, importantly, from the wider international community and this will help to ensure its future.
§ Mr. David Stewart:To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans he has to contribute to the reform of the Global Fund's administrative structure. [141500]
§ Hilary Benn:The Global Fund was created as a new partnership between Governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities in January 2002 719W and the UK was a prime mover in its establishment. It was set up with an innovative organisational structure—with Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), Local Fund Agents (LFAs) and Principal Recipients (PRs) at country level. The Fund recognises that there is a need at this early stage to assess the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the new structures in order to suggest and introduce improvements. Evaluation priorities for 2004–05 have been set these will include the Fund's governance structure and an assessment of the performance based funding system.
Members of the Board of the Global Fund have a collective responsibility to ensure its effectiveness. As a Board member and through our membership on committees of the Fund—such as the Monitoring and Effectiveness, Finance and Audit Committee, the UK will play its part in any reform resulting from these evaluations. We will be particularly keen to ensure that Global Fund processes do not add to the administrative burden of countries but align and harmonise with existing systems.
§ Mr. David Stewart:To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans his Department has to adopt a system of annual contributions to the Global Fund based on the Equitable Contribution Framework. [141502]
§ Hilary Benn:My Department has no plans to adopt a system of contributions based on an equitable contribution framework. At the sixth Board meeting of the Global Fund held in October, members of the Board of the Global Fund voted to move to a periodic replenishment model on a voluntary basis for all public donors, complemented by additional ad hoc donations. This is now the agreed system for contributions to the Global Fund and should put the Fund on a firmer financial footing.