09 MAY 2001

REGARDING THE GLOBAL AIDS FUND GOVERNANCE AND STRUCTURE

ACTION ALERT
9 May 2001

SIGN-ON LETTER TO:

Canada
Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Suite 309-S
Center Bloc
House of Commons
111 Wellington St
Ottawa
Ontario K1A 0A2
CANADA
pm@pm.gc.ca

Paul Martin
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Room 515S Centre Block
Ottawa
Ontario K1A 0A6
Canada
pmartin@fin.gc.ca

France
President Jacques Chirac
Monsieur le Président de la République
Palais de l'Elysée
55, rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 - Paris
email page www.elysee.fr/mel/mel_.htm

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin
Prime Minister's Office
57 Rue de Varennes
75700
Paris
France

Laurent Fabius
Ministere de l'economie, des finances et de l'industrie
139 Rue De Bercy
75572 Paris
Cedex 12
FRANCE
Germany
Chancellor Schroeder
Adenauerallee 141
531131
Bonn
Germany
posteingang@bpa.bund.de

Hans Eichel
Federal Minister of Finance
Postfach 1308
D-53003 Bonn
GERMANY
Poststelle@bmf.bund.de

Italy
Giuliano Amato
Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
Palazzo Chigi
Piazza Colonna 370
00187 Roma
ITALY
presidente@palazzochigi.it

Vincenzo Visco
Ministerio de Finanzas
Viale America 242
00140 Roma
Italy

Japan
Prime M i nister Junichiro Koizumi
Prime Minister's office
2-3-1 Nagata-cho
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100- 0014
Japan
jpm@kantei.go.jp

Masajuro Shiokawa
Minister of Finance
1-1 Kasumigaseki 3-chome
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN
info@mof.go.jp

Russia
President Vladimir Putin
The Kremlin
Moscow
Russia
president@gov.ru

Mikhael Kasyanov
Ministry of Finance
Ul. ylinca 9
Moscow 103097
Russia

United Kingdom
Prime Minister Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Gordon Brown
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
Parliament Street
London SW1P 3AG
e-mail: info@hm-treasury.gov.uk

United States
George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C 20500
USA
president@whitehouse.gov

US Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill
Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20220
USA
Email: OPCMail@do.treas.gov

International Monetary Fund
Horst Kohler
Managing Director
International Monetary Fund
700 19th St NW
Washington
DC 20009
USA
publicaffairs@imf.org

James D. Wolfensohn
President,
World Bank
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
U.S.A.
Info@worldbank.org

Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
NY 10017
USA

As representatives of civil society constituencies in both industrialized and developing countries, we are greatly encouraged by the recent interest of the UN, the G7 governments, the IMF and the World Bank in establishing a Global AIDS Fund to combat HIV/AIDS with up to $10 billion dollars per year in grants. These developments create an historic opportunity for many interested stakeholders to join forces to achieve our common objective of eradicating HIV/AIDS. For a Global AIDS Fund to be successful, questions of its governance and structure should be addressed openly and with the full participation of civil society stakeholders. It is our view that the Global AIDS Fund should be designed and managed based on the following principles:

— It should ensure full participation by civil society-- including youth, people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly women -- in all aspects of the governance, design, and implementation of grants;

— Corporate interests, such as pharmaceutical companies, who are potential large beneficiaries of the Global AIDS Fund should not participate in its design or governance;

— It should provide grants to civil, community-based, and non-governmental organizations to achieve the balanced implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support, treatment, response to orphans and vulnerable children, infrastructure development, and/or capacity building based on locally-determined priorities. Arbitrary earmarking of funds that de-emphasizes the right to treatment with anti-retroviral agents by external partners should be opposed;

— It should ensure that there is full accountability for resources, transparency, and effectiveness in the administration of the Fund;

— The Global AIDS Fund should be completely results-oriented, with clearly set objectives for measuring success, as demonstrated by reduction in HIV infections and rates of mortality.

— It should ensure that funds are transferred through decentralized, streamlined, and efficient mechanisms, with a minimal bureaucratic burden;

— HIV/AIDS related medicines purchased with these funds should be obtained using a bulk procurement mechanism that is based on open competition, including bids for generically manufactured drugs, in order to expand access to high quality drugs at best world prices;

— Funding decisions should be made independently of whether governments have met structural adjustment conditionalities imposed on government by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund;

— The first phase of the Global AIDS Fund should be focused on the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and gradually be expanded to other regions;

For these principles to be adhered to fully, we believe that the Global AIDS Trust Fund, while working in partnership with the international multilateral agencies, should maintain an independent governance structure and should establish innovative implementation mechanisms outside of routine operations of the multilateral institutions such as the UN, the World Bank, or US government agencies.

The Global AIDS Fund should be negotiated with the full participation of civil society. To date, civil society has not been formally involved in any discussion regarding the creation of the UN-proposed Global AIDS Fund, nor the World Bank International AIDS Trust Fund. This lack of transparency and participation of civil society in the design of these mechanisms gives us cause for great concern. We urgently call upon the UN leaders, G7 leaders, World Bank and IMF leaders to establish a transparent consultative process, as soon as possible, so that the design, governance, and institutional guardianship of the Global AIDS Fund can be negotiated with the full participation of civil society. We will be convening a civil society forum during the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS on the "Global AIDS Fund" that will be held in June 2001.

We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss these issues with you in greater detail at a mutually convenient forum to be organized at the earliest opportunity.

Sincerely yours,

Paul Zeitz and Chatinkha Nkhoma
Global AIDS Alliance
Washington, DC and Lilongwe, Malawi

Ochoro Otunno
Africa AIDS Initiative
New York City, NY

Joseph Edet
Adolescents In Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria

Straight Talk Foundation
Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda.

Medad Muhwezi
CHUSA/Safegaurd Youth From AIDS
Uganda

Dantes Kashangirwe
The Boys and Girls Brigade of Uganda
Kampala Uganda.

Zie Gariyo
Uganda Debt Network,
Kampala, Uganda

Prof. Rwomushana
Uganda AIDS Commission
Kampala Uganda

Charlotte Mwesigye
Jubilee Plus Uganda
Kampala Uganda

Salih Booker
Africa Action
Washington DC and NYC, NY

Tim Atwater
Jubilee USA Network
Washington, DC

Health GAP Coalition
Global

Paul Boneberg
Global AIDS Action Network
San Francisco, CA

Janet Cleveland
Boston Global Action Network (BGAN) Africa AIDS Project
Boston, MA

Leon Spencer
Washington Office on Africa
Washington, DC

Valora Washington
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Cambridge, MA

Grace Awe
Save Foundation
Ibadan, Nigeria

John Iverson
ACT UP/East Bay
Oakland, CA

Middle East Childrens Alliance,
Berkeley, CA

Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek,
Berkeley, CA

Barbara Lubin, former member Berkeley School Board
Berkeley, CA

Professor Osato Giwa-Osagie
PostAbortion Care Network Of Nigeria,
Howzat Foundation for Cricket
Consultant OBGYN and Reproductive Health
Lagos, Nigeria

Francis O. Ademola
Christian Rural and Urban Association of Nigeria
Southwest Zone, Nigeria

Samantha Fleming
Chapter 2 Network
Cape Town, South Africa

Pamela Brown-Peterside, PhD
New York Blood Center
New York City, NY

Edie Welty
Cameroon Baptist Convention

Jim Silk, Director
Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic,
Yale Law School

Victoria Taiwo Obasaju-Ayo, Private Consultant
Nigeria

Jim Russo
Michigan Jubilee Coalition
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Neil Sachs
African Services Committee
New York City, NY

Bill Arnold
Title II Community AIDS National Network
Washington, DC

Rabbi David Saperstein
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Washington, DC

Robert Weissman
Essential Action
Washington, DC

Julie Davids
Critical Path AIDS Project
Philadelphia, PA

Evelyne Shuster
Global Lawyers and Physicians
Human Rights and Medical Ethics Program, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Philadelphia, PA

Leigh Blake
Red Hot
Los Angeles, CA

Anne-christine d'Adesky
Global AIDS Collaborative
for Care, Treatment and Support
(Global ACCTS)
New York City, NY