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Foreign Affairs committee We need more resources to do that, in line with the scenarios we just discussed. That would enable us to go beyond what we've done so far. Treating 800,000 women is great, but we need roughly to double that number if we really want to reach all the women. By the way, that includes not only treatment; they first have to come for testing and counselling.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee These drugs were costing more than $10,000 per patient per year 10 years ago, before the Global Fund started; we are now purchasing these drugs for $150 per patient per year. That's a dramatic decline in terms of cost. We are purchasing more than 90% of these drugs from generic producers, mainly in India, South Africa, and Brazil.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee That's correct. We don't dictate the terms, but we measure the results. As I indicated, we think this is like a contract. We enter a partnership contract in which the responsibility is with the country, but they are also accountable for the results. That's the contract. If that's kept by both sides, then we provide the money and they provide the services.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Do you mean in economic terms?
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee There are numbers. Malaria alone costs the African continent $12 billion per year. That's a significant amount. It is not just the direct cost for the treatment for the disease, but the cost of absenteeism. Frequently people in Africa cannot go to work, cannot care for the community, and so on, because they are sick with malaria.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Yes. For all the interventions there are educational components, even for the mosquito nets. We have, for example, radio program advertisements to tell people to sleep under the nets, so that they understand why they are protected by these nets. It's important to understand. The same applies, obviously, to HIV/AIDS in terms of sexual education, social marketing of condoms, and so on, and maternal health as well.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee No, hopefully that would get us to the second option. The third option would mean a doubling of the contribution by all donors, because currently for this replenishment period we are at $10 billion, and the third option is $20 billion. We are aiming for $17 billion for the next period, but I am not asking Canada or the other major donors to increase by 70%; I am asking only for a 50% increase, because we are also expecting contributions from countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, as I said.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee You mentioned all the right numbers. Cumulatively, Canada has contributed close to $1 billion Canadian. Over this three-year replenishment period, Canada contributed $450 million, and as I mentioned, which makes Canada the eighth-largest donor to the Global Fund. I would characterize Canada's contribution to the Global Fund as generous.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Yes. I would mention in particular Russia and China. They have already made this transition, but we want to see an even bigger commitment. We would now also like to have countries such as India, Brazil, and so on come to the table, because it's a joint responsibility, after all.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Yes. About half of our resources go to the governments directly, and half of the resources go to the non-governmental sector, but the important point is that it's the countries that decide. It's not us deciding at the global level and picking an NGO here or an NGO there. Many are active at the country level, and they often have the capacity to implement.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Yes, absolutely. It's critical for our model that we can demonstrate results and good use of money. The way we do it is by implementing what we call “performance-based funding”. That means every recipient enters into a contract with the Global Fund. The contract includes the indicators of what they are going to achieve; the indicators are then externally verified by auditors as to whether they achieve or not, and that determines the funding.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee You're absolutely right. All the MDGs are interconnected, and I'm pleased you're mentioning MDG 8, because that's an effective development partnership. We would not be able to achieve the results on MDGs 4, 5, and 6--children, maternal mortality, and the diseases--unless we initiated a new kind of development partnership at the country level.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee The Global Fund has basically two origins. One is the UN; the UN Secretary-General at that time, Kofi Annan, whom I hope you will see in the video at the end, was really a big supporter of the fund. The other one has always been the G-8. It started with the G-8 in Canada in 2000; then, at all the G-8s over the years, the Global Fund, the fight against the diseases, and the progress towards the millennium development goals have always been on the agenda.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee That's very important. The investment of the Global Fund goes equally into prevention and treatment. By the way, it's not the Global Fund secretariat that decides that, but the countries. When the countries apply, they design their programs, and we simply finance them, so we don't actually influence whether the money goes into treatment or prevention, but it turns out that all the countries apply for almost equal amounts for prevention and treatment.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn
Foreign Affairs committee Yes, we do. In the most affected countries in Africa, we see a decline of HIV prevalence. It's not as dramatic as with malaria, of course. You can't achieve that in a short period of time. As I said, with malaria, it's 50%, but in HIV, you now achieve reductions of 5% or 10%, which is great, because we are seeing a reversing of the trend of increasing infections.
May 11th, 2010Committee meeting
Dr. Christoph Benn