STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER,

H.E. AMBROSE MANDVULO DLAMINI

AT THE MEETING WITH THE GLOBAL FUND COUNTRY TEAM 

CABINET OFFICES, MBABANE

Monday 25 November 2019

 

Honourable Minister

Global Fund Country team leader Boniface Njenga and your delegation

Members of Eswatini Country Coordination Mechanism Secretariat

Senior Government officials

Members of the media

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon

It is my honour to welcome the Global Fund Country team to the Cabinet Offices today.

May I, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, congratulate the Global Fund for the successful Replenishment Summit held in France last month where over $14 billion was raised to support HIV, TB and Malaria programmes in over 100 countries.

Eswatini is highly appreciative of the valuable assistance it continues to receive from the Global Fund, hence it pleased His Majesty King Mswati III to pledge $6million on behalf of the Kingdom at the Replenishment Summit.

As a country, we are grateful for the King’s visionary leadership and his commitment to the health of the nation which was displayed by a pledge that serves as an investment to the health of all Emaswati. The pledge is also a symbol of Eswatini’s solidarity with the global community in the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria.

Over the years, Eswatini has received over US$265million, approximately E3.5 billion, from the Global Fund in support of intervention programmes to strengthen the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria. Combined with assistance from the country’s partners such as PEPFAR, the European Union and United Nations, this support has enabled the Kingdom to achieve several health milestones that include, among others:

  • Reduction of new HIV infections mainly through high uptake of Anti Retroviral Therapy and aggressive campaigns on behavior change. More HIV positive patients are on Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) and as at 31 December 2018, patients enrolled on ART were over 172,000.
  • A gradual decline in TB cases from 11,000 in 2010 to 3,000 in 2018 and an increase in TB case detection from 56% in 2015 to 84% in 2018. Regional Doctors and Nurses have been hired through these grants and have ensured that TB services are decentralized to the regions and patients receive immediate service from facilities.   
  • The country has successfully transitioned from malaria control continuum to pre-elimination and eventually malaria elimination with a set date of the 2020 season. As a result of the Global Fund’s investment, the country has seen a significant decline of malaria cases as well as incidence attributed to the uptake of the various key interventions within the Malaria National Strategic Plan.
  • The installation of Client Management Information System (CMIS) in some facilities has improved data reporting timelines, as more of the facilities are now reporting on real time.

It therefore goes without saying that the enduring partnership between the Global Fund and Eswatini is of utmost significance to the entire health value chain of the Kingdom and we need to sustain and improve these gains.

To this end, I have been informed that the Global Fund is helping the country develop a health sustainability strategy which I look forward to launching next year.

Currently, the Eswatini Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) is preparing for the development process for our next funding requests for HIV, TB and Malaria as the current grants are coming to an end in 2020 for Malaria, and 2021 for HIV and TB. 

The achievements that have been realised through the Global Fund assistance can only be enhanced by our continued strategic partnership to ensure that the country meets, among others, our vision of ending AIDS related deaths by 2022 and fulfil Sustainable Development Goal number 3 of ensuring ‘Health for All.’

May I once again, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, pass my gratitude to the Global Fund for your valuable support and commitment to save the lives of Emaswati and all affected across the world.

Thank you.

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