Global Fund returns to Myanmar with 110 million dollars

Nov 15, 2009, 6:54 GMT

   Yangon - The Global Fund has agreed to provide Myanmar with 110 million dollars to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, after pulling out of the country four years ago, media reports said Sunday.

   Total funding for Myanmar could rise to almost 290 million dollars if the grants are extended to the maximum five-year period, The Myanmar Times reported, citing documents provided by The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

   It will be the first aid Myanmar has received from organisation since it terminated grants to the country in 2005, Global Fund spokeswoman Marcela Rojo told the English-language weekly.

   'After the termination of Global Fund grants in Myanmar in 2005, this is a very significant and very much welcome development, as the Global Fund is aware of the tremendous need to provide humanitarian assistance to prevent and fight the three diseases in Myanmar,' Rojo said.

   The Global Fund's decision to end funding in Myanmar, a pariah state among Western democracies because of human rights abuses and refusal to implement democratic reforms, was attributed to political pressure from the US, a major donor to the fund.

   To some extent the Global Fund's aid to Myanmar had been replaced by the European Union backed Three Diseases Fund.

   UNAIDS country coordinator for Myanmar Sun Gang described the Global Fund's return to Myanmar as 'very much significant - and welcomed by all the (implementing) partners.'

   'Of all the least-developed countries, Myanmar receives just about the lowest level of ODA (Official Development Assistance) in the world,' Gang said.

   'To have the Global Fund providing money again not only means much-need financial resources but is also further evidence of the increasing confidence from the outside world that Myanmar does have the capacity to absorb more resources and deliver services to its people,' he added.