Last week, the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria announced that it would no longer be disbursing its 11th round of funding due to insufficient liquidity as a result of donors failing to meet funding pledges.

The Global Fund is the single largest financier of anti-AIDS, TB and Malaria programs worldwide. It is also hugely successful with a proven track record for delivering results on the ground -through their AIDS programs alone they have saved an estimated 6 million lives since 2002.

All over the world children with disabilities are excluded from education. Of the 67 million children who are out of school worldwide it is estimated that one third have a disability, that’s around 30 million children. It is estimated that in sub Saharan Africa 90-95% of children with disabilities are out of school. The reason these are estimates is that there is just no data: these children are never included in official statistics.

This is the letter I sent to Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP for the July action on EU support for vaccines

SL letter on MFF support for GAVI.pdf

This is the letter I sent to my MP for the May action

May Action letter.doc

Dr Charles Tannock MEP, who represents our London group members, submitted this question on GAVI:

Subject: The optimal size of the EU budget for assisting vaccination programmes in the developing world.

"I have been contacted by members of my constituency regarding financial support for GAVI from the EU.

I've raised £665 so far with more pledged, was interviewed in BBC Essex radio

'listen again'  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00g7zr5/Ian_Wyatt_01_05_2011/

While enrollment figures demonstrate that much progress has been made on girls’ education, the use of such figures create a tendency to ‘minimally achieve the targets’ set for the achievement of the education-related MDGs.  New measurements on gender and education are needed to better reflect reality and efforts made by developing countries governments and donors should be channeled to ensure that children complete their education and that the school system is functional for all students. 

Letter from Stephen O'Brien to Sarah Luford MEP

DFID GAVI response April 2011 (2).pdf