The Global Fund pre-board South East Asia Constituency Meeting began in the Maldives on Monday.
The Global Fund is an organisation designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.
The Maldives is the current chair of the South East Asia Constituency Meeting, which will help prepare regional member states for the board meeting to be held later this month.
The meeting was officially inaugurated by Health Minister Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim. Speaking at the inauguration, the minister highlighted the efforts by local authorities to prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, adding that “the country requires international support to achieve the targets.”
Managing Director of ADK Hospital, Ahmed Afaal, who is the chair of the Maldives’ Country Coordinating Mechanism, told PSM News that the main objective of the meeting is to bring regional members together to form a consensus to be presented to the Global Fund in the effort to prevent and control AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. He said “the Maldives’ aim as the chair would be to ensure participation of all countries, and come up with a feasible plan which is beneficial for regional members.”
Representatives from all regional member states are attending the two-day meeting.
The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership organisation designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.
Founded in 2002, the Global Fund is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund raisers invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programmes run by local experts in countries and communities most in need.
It organises meetings twice annually to review and analyse the situation of these diseases so as to enable them to understand funding mechanism and requirements for different countries.
The Global Fund strategy is a multi-year roadmap for the partnership’s future. The strategy sets out priorities for how the Global Fund partnership can accelerate progress against HIV, TB and malaria and improve global health. It also includes ambitious goals and targets to measure progress.