BY NEELAM JEENA
India Working Group for Health Advocacy (IWG) together with Global Fund Advocates Network Asia-Pacific (GFAN AP) convened a group of journalists on 22 April 2022 in New Delhi. The “Meet and Greet” event focused on providing an update on the HIV, TB and Malaria responses in India, the impact of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) in India and the importance of increasing the allocation of Gross Domestic Product for health and for the three responses nationally.
Providing an overview of the Global Fund, Sonal Mehta, Director for IPPF South Asia Regional Office highlighted the significant investments the Global Fund has made in India and the contribution it has made to bring out communities and civil society voices within the three responses. Participating in the discussion Blessina Kumar, CEO of Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA), Daxa Patel, Executive Board Member of National Coalition of People Living with HIV in India (NCPI+) and Abhina Aher, Transgender activist emphasized that the HIV, TB and malaria responses in the country needs urgent and increased investments externally and domestically to ensure that the country end these epidemics as diseases by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and that India has a critical role to play as a global leader and partner in the upcoming Seventh Replenishment of the Global Fund.
The Global Fund has invested USD 2.5 billion in HIV, TB/HIV, TB and malaria programmes in India, and in 2021 its COVID-19 Response Mechanism contributed USD 112.9 million for mitigating COVID-19 impacts on the three diseases and reinforcing national COVID-19 responses of which USD 75 million was for supported India in the purchasing of oxygen concentrators and Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plants.
India is both an implementing country as well as a donor. As a donor country to the Global Fund, India has so far pledged USD 69.5 million to the Global Fund including its USD 22 million pledge for the Sixth Replenishment of the Global Fund in 2019. In 2022, coinciding with its 20th Anniversary, the Global Fund launched its Seventh Replenishment calling for at least USD 18 billion for the period of 2023-2025.
(Left to right: Sylvester Merchant coordinator of IWG, Rachel Ong Regional Coordinator of GFAN AP, Anukriti Singh Communications and Media Officer GFAN AP, Rahul Garg News Writer for The Statesman, Niluka Perera Advocacy and Program Officer GFAN AP, Anoushka Rajesh Health Reporter The Quint Fit, Blessina Kumar, Ashlin Mathew National Editor National Herald, Daxa Patel, Abhina Aher and Sonal Mehta)