On a sunny evening at the beginning of June, the Crown Agents Annual General Meeting (AGM) and reception took place at the illustrious Marlborough House situated in Pall Mall, London. It was attended by 130 guests, including dignitaries from the diplomatic community, Crown Agents' clients and representatives from various international institutions including The Crown Agents Foundation member institutions. The AGM was followed by a presentation and discussion led by Dr Christoph Benn, Director of External Relations & Partnerships Cluster for the Global Fund.
Dr Benn is a physician with special training in Tropical Medicine and Public Health. In his current position he is responsible for the relations with all stakeholders of the Global Fund - the board, governments in donor and implementing countries, civil society, private sector and multilateral institutions. In particular he has been leading efforts to secure the resources for Global Fund supported programs mobilising US$ 3-4 billion per year as of 2008. He has been closely involved in the establishment of 'Friends of the Fund' organisations around the world. He worked previously for several years as Medical Superintendent in a hospital of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania and as Coordinator of an AIDS Control Programme in Tanzania.
The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organisations.
Dr Benn presented the guests with the topic of 'opportunities and challenges in global health' relating to the Millennium Development Goals. He specified that by 2015 we could meet many international targets regarding combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. He also estimated that the programs supported by The Global Fund have saved at least 4.9 million lives in the last six years. Dr Benn also spoke about the Global Fund's aim to make sure all children born in the world are born HIV free. He went on to declare that this is an achievable aim and that the Global Fund, with the help of its ambassador Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has just launched an ambitious campaign to raise public support for this aim.
To summarise Dr Benn stressed that 2010 is a decisive year in which the world will review progress on the Millennium Development Goals. This review will decide if the fight against AIDS has been won and if the health-related development goals have been met. He emphasised that the gains so far have been fragile and a reduction of funding would lead to reversals of recent progress and put the Millennium Development Goals out of reach if AIDS, TB and malaria program's are not scaled up and continued.