On 1 April, GFAN Africa facilitated a regional day of action to extend sincere gratitude to the United States, the Biden-Harris Administration, and the U.S. Congress led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for the $3.5 billion emergency funding commitment they secured for the efforts of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries.
These resources will support low and middle-income countries to rapidly expand their testing capacity and ensure health care workers are adequately protected with personal protective equipment (PPE). The investment will support countries to contain the virus and its variants, ensure those infected have access to care and treatment (including adequate oxygen supplies) and prepare for successful vaccine delivery. It will save many l...
On 3 September, GFAN Africa , CS4ME and the Africa Coalition on Tuberculosis organized a webinar titled Dialogue on the HIV, TB and Malaria Response Amid COVID-19. The webinar is one of the series of activities organized by GFAN Africa as part of the #TheBeatContinues campaign in efforts to defeat COVID-19 and mitigate its effects of the disease on HIV, TB and Malaria.
In her remarks, Linda Mafu the head of Civil Society and Political Advocacy at the Global Fund noted that COVID-19 is a global emergency that requires a global response. She emphasized that in the spirit of UHC, no one should be left behind. She called for deep community engagement as communities are most affected by COVID-19; which has r...
Commonwealth Health Ministers meet every year. This year, the meeting took place virtually on 14 May 2020. The theme of the meeting was delivering a coordinated Commonwealth COVID-19 response. The meeting was timely as Governments the world over were caught out when COVID-19 struck. As the meeting took place, Global Fund Advocates Network – Africa members sent solidarity letters to their Ministers for health and to Her Excellency Amira El Fadil the Commissioner for Social Affairs at the Africa Union Commission
In the letters, Civil Society noted with concern the economic, social and health disruptions caused by COVID-19. They acknowledged and appreciated the efforts that the Governments, private sector, donors and individuals are putting in place to protect citizens from COVID-19 to save lives, mitigate its impact and sustai...
International Civil Society Support and WACI Health invite you to join a follow-up call to our June 18th call for civil society and communities interesting in learning about the ACT-A.
Current interim or selected civil society and community representatives from the ACT-A pillars will be on the call to provide updates including outcomes from the Therapeutics Pillars in terms of selecting representation, updates and movement within the Vaccine and Health Systems Connector Pillars on CS and community engagement and further planning towards mapping broader health community engagement in ACT-A work including working to centre the experience of people living with COVID-19 within the global response to COVID-19.
This 1.5 hour call will take place on August 6th from 8:00-9:30 EST/CLT , 14:00-15:30 CEST/SAST
“COVID-19 has the potential to cause substantial disruptions to health services, due to cases overburdening the health system or response measures limiting usual programmatic activities. We aimed to quantify the extent to which disruptions to services for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in low-income and middle-income countries with high burdens of these diseases could lead to additional loss of life over the next 5 years.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the extraordinary gains made by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria partnership in the fight against the three epidemics. In 2020 we will likely see increases in deaths and new infections across all three diseases for the first time in many years as health and community systems are overwhelmed, treatment and
prevention programs are disrupted, and resources are diverted. In many of the countries most heavily affected by HIV, TB and malaria, the knock-on impact of COVID-19 on these three diseases in terms of incremental deaths may outweigh the direct impact of the virus. “
