KENYA – The Government of Kenya will enhance its commitment and contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria during the 7th Global Fund Replenishment pledging conference, the Ministry of Health in Kenya has announced on its website.
Kenya has pledged her commitment to the Global Fund Kitty in support of President Joe Biden’s decision to host the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York, United States of America from 18th September 2022 to 21st September 2022.
For the Seventh Replenishment, the Global Fund needs at least US$18 billion to get the world back on track toward ending HIV, TB and malaria as well as to build resilient and sustainable systems for health and strengthen pandemic preparedness.
The Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment is the world’s opportunity to rise to the challenge and take bold action to protect everyone, everywhere from the deadliest infectious diseases, says the international financing and partnership organization.
Over the past 20 years, the Global Fund’s unique partnership has invested more than US$53 billion, saving 44 million lives and reducing the combined death rate from HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria by more than half in the countries in which the Global Fund invests.
During a roundtable with various Global Fund grant implementation partners, Kenya’s Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said the Global Fund has played a critical role in addressing HIV, TB, and Malaria along with strengthening Community and Health Systems in the country.
“Since 2002 the Global Fund has been a partner in advancing universal access to health services in Kenya. To date, the Global Fund has signed in favor of Kenya grants amounting to over US$1.8 billion,” observed Health Principal Secretary Mochache.
Susan Mochache disclosed that the financial assistance has supplemented the Kenyan Government’s efforts to address the three diseases of global concern as well as strengthened health service delivery, infrastructure and community systems.
“Working together with the Global Fund and other partners, Kenya has made great strides across the three strategic public health programmes between 2013 and 2021,” the Health Principal Secretary said.
She pointed out that the HIV programme in Kenya yielded a 67% decline in annual AIDS-related deaths and an increase of 83% in the number of people living with HIV that are on life-saving antiretroviral treatment, from 0.66 million people in 2013 to 1.2 million people in 2021.
“With respect to the TB programme, the Government of Kenya has recorded a treatment success rate of 85% and a significant decline in the annual TB incidence,” Principal Secretary Mochache highlighted.
She further revealed that the Malaria Programme has contributed to the overall reduction of malaria burden in Kenya, noting that the national level prevalence declined from 8.2% in 2015 to 5.6% in 2020.
Kenya’s Health Principal Secretary reaffirmed that the Government will continue allocating additional resources for the health sector to meet Kenyan needs based on health policies, adding that the Government will continue supporting local manufacturing to ensure sustainability of the gains made.
“We commit to ensure good governance and accountability of resources in the health sector to ensure sustainability of the gains in the Health Sector,” she added.
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