When the Group of Eight (G-8) countries meet in Scotland next month, the future of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will be among issues vying for their attention. The fund, created in 2001 by the G-8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia), needs an estimated $9 billion from 2005-2007 to meet current and future commitments. It is not clear whether G-8 countries will donate the money.

     "I'm not confident they'll come through," said Richard Feacham, executive director of the Global Fund. "But the money is there. It's a political decision."

     The United States is the largest donor to the fund, but dollars that might have reached the fund have been channeled into the US-run five-year, $15 billion international AIDS initiative. Doubt has arisen as to whether the effort to provide antiretrovirals (ARVs) to 3 million HIV/AIDS patients by 2005, a program backed by the Global Fund and the World Health Organization, will meet its goal.

     A recent analysis of 51 Global Fund grants that have run for about 18 months showed the fund has exceeded targets in providing ARVs to HIV/AIDS patients, dispensing drugs to malaria patients, and caring for and treating orphans. Feacham noted "that performance may not be sustained" because of the potential funding shortage. The Global Fund, which has 150 employees, evaluates proposals seeking funding and rejects about 60 percent of them, Feacham said.

     Feacham plans to visit most capitals of the G-8 countries in the weeks leading up to the summit. He wants four countries that each provide about $100 million annually but are lagging in their contributions - the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Japan - to double their funding in 2005 and triple it in 2006.

     "There's no point in having a small Global Fund," Feacham said. "Close it down" or substantially increase its support, he said.