Saturday

Uganda earns a representation at the Global Fund

By ASNS Correspondent

Still smarting from the scandal that dogged the country last year on misuse of grants from the Global Fund to fight TB, Malaria and HIV, Uganda’s NGO civil society now has a delegate to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) Board, through whom they can channel their concerns regarding the fund’s implementation.

Enid Wamani (right), the National Coordinator for Malaria and Childhood Illness NGO secretariat, was recently nominated by an international committee as a delegation member representing developing countries.

Wamani is now a co-vice chairperson on the National Health Policy Advisory Committee. The NGO delegation supports board members to bring the voice and participation of developing countries to the GFATM’s decision making forum.

The delegation is presently comprises three people from Africa, two from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America and two from Asia. "My appointment indicates the confidence and commitment the Global Fund has to work with Ugandans to effectively manage Global Fund implementation," Wamani said.

"The Global Fund is a real blessing in Uganda. It has, so far, averted 1.8 million deaths through providing AIDS treatment for 1.1 million people, T.B treatment for 2.8 million people and through distributing 30 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets for the prevention of malaria worldwide," she added.

Last year, Health Minister Jim Muhwezi and his deputies Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha were under fire over the misuse of an international fund which led to setting upa commission to probe the allegations.

The Global Fund (GF) to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria temporarily suspended five grants worth 367-million U.S. dollars to Uganda last August, saying it had found serious mismanagement in the distribution of the money.

But Muhwezi denied responsibility for the misuse of funds to fight AIDS and rejected a proposal to apologize to the public, which infuriated the CSOs.

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