Debt2Health Initiative
The Debt2Health initiative was formally launched in Berlin on September 26, 2007, in conjunction with the Global Fund replenishment meetings. Also, on September 24, the Global Fund hosted a civil-society meeting to review Debt2Health within the context of overall efforts to mobilize resources to fight HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, where GAA Executive Director Paul Zeitz moderated a session on developing principles for civil-society advocacy on Debt2Health. Click here for media coverage of the Debt2Health launch.
The Global Fund has produced a factsheet and basic Q&A summary on Debt2Health:
Debt2Health Factsheet (PDF) ENGLISH FRENCH GERMAN SPANISH
Debt2Health Q&A (PDF) ENGLISH FRENCH GERMAN SPANISH
Background
Despite recent increases in official development assistance, resources to address the global epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are still sorely lacking, and health spending remains far lower than required to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015.To address the need for increased financing, many within the international health community, including the Global AIDS Alliance, began to advocate the use of Global Fund debt conversion, a mechanism designed to convert old government debt into new resources to tackle HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. In response, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria launched a new Debt2Health initiative to achieve pilot implementation of Global Fund debt conversion. Click here to read a new report, Debt2Health: The Debt Conversion Initiative of the Global Fund.
The idea behind Debt2Health is to apply the well-established instrument of debt swaps to financing public health programs using the performance-based systems of the Global Fund. Debt2Health invites creditors to write off a portion of the debt owed them on the condition that the beneficiary countries invest an agreed-upon amount in local programs approved by the Global Fund. Such debt conversion would enable poor countries to devote more of their own resources to fighting HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, including essential health systems strengthening. In addition, participating debtor nations would avoid the negative consequences to their credit standing within the global economy that sometimes result from more traditional debt cancellation.
The Debt2Health initiative is initially focusing on negotiating debt swap agreements with Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, and Kenya. These countries were selected based on a number of criteria, including financial solvency, a high burden of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, and a history of effectively implementing Global Fund grants. Negotiations on a pilot debt conversion agreement between Germany and Indonesia will begin soon, with the hope of expanding the program to additional countries.
The Global Fund's Debt2Health Initiative is currently supported by the Global AIDS Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, Erlassjahr.de (the German Jubilee movement), Australia's Make Poverty History Campaign, and the governments of Germany and Indonesia.
The Global Fund's Debt2Health initiative builds on over five years of work to develop and advance the concept of Global Fund debt conversion. In 2005, the Global AIDS Alliance and Advocacy International conducted a six-month feasibility study of seven debtor nations that have successfully implemented Global Fund grants and are making sizeable investments in health care. A July 2005 report based on this study concluded that Global Fund debt conversion could generate significant new resources for health programs in poor countries, and recommended Indonesia, Peru, Pakistan, and Nigeria as the most viable countries for initial implementation of debt-for-health swaps. In addition, the report recommended establishing a pilot GFDC program and creating an advocacy campaign to expand the categories of debt eligible for conversion. Click here to download a PDF file of the report.
For more information on GAA's work on Debt2Health, contact David Bryden at dbryden@globalaidsalliance.org.
Resources
Debt2Health Initiative Presentation, Global Fund, February 2007 (PDF).Innovative Financing Instruments Paper No. 2: Financing the Fight Against AIDS, TB, and Malaria: Global Fund Debt Conversion (GFDC), Global Fund, October 15, 2005 (PDF).
Report on the Global Fund's Partnership Forum, July 2004. This report includes the suggestion that the Global Fund consider debt swaps or debt conversion within its proposed new resource mobilization strategy.
Debt-for-AIDS Swaps, UNAIDS Policy Information Brief, February 2004 (PDF).
Letter from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, November 26, 2003. This letter endorses the concept of using debt conversion to leverage additional resources for AIDS, TB, and malaria programs.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo Endorses Debt-for-AIDS Swaps, U.N. General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, Informal Panel Discussion, September 22, 2003. See pages 26-28 of this Kaiser Family Foundation transcript.
Filling the Funding Gap: A Proposal to Convert Debt Payments to Combat HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Dr. Ibrahim Atta, Civil Society Consultative Group on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Kwesi Owusu, Southern Links, and Paul Zeitz, Global AIDS Alliance, October 5, 2002.
Excerpts on Nigeria's Proposal to Convert Debt to Combat HIV/AIDS, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 3, 2002. See pages 7-8 for an endorsement of debt conversion by Jendayi Frazer, former National Security Director Director of African Affairs and current U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.
A Bold Proposal for Poor African Nations: Forget the Debt, Boston Globe, August 4, 2002.
AIDS, Poverty Reduction and Debt Relief: A Toolkit for Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS Programmes into Development Instruments, UNAIDS and The World Bank, March 2001.
A Review of Experiences in Integrating An Expanded HIV/AIDS Response to the Debt Relief Process in Africa: 1999-2000, A discussion paper presented at the UNAIDS Workshop on the Role of Debt Relief in Financing National HIV/AIDS Programs, Paul S. Zeitz, November 2000.
Exchanging Debt for Health in Africa: Lessons from Ten Years of Debt-for-Development Swaps, Harvard Institute for International Development, A discussion paper by Sydney Rosen, Jonathon Simon, Donald Thea, and Paul Zeitz, November 1999. Share