The Fund must be able to deliver money quickly where it is most needed. Its decision-making must be open and transparent. It should give support to all kinds of organizations that are really working to fight the epidemic and help those affected by it, and which are willing to work within a common country framework. Each country or community receiving support from the Fund would have to show that it is actually bringing results to those most at risk. These results would be independently monitored.
More work is needed on the details.
I intend to pursue the idea actively with all concerned over the next few weeks. Undoubtedly the heavy lifting, given the amounts involved, will have to be done by the Governments and taxpayers of the industrialized world. They have long committed themselves, on paper, to spending 0.7 per cent of their gross national product on aid to developing countries. Very few countries have lived up to that pledge, and the industrialized world as a whole has reached only 0.2 per cent. All governments should realize that, unless they take that commitment more seriously, they will have little chance of meeting the new commitments they made at last year's Millennium Summit in New York.