US embassy cable - 03GUATEMALA2630

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI, TBIO, EAID, GT, UNDP, UNESCO 
SUBJECT: GUATEMALA SEEKS SUPPORT FOR AIDS PROGRAM 
 
1. Summary: On October 9, the Ambassador attended a GOG 
presentation to elicit support for its latest attempt to 
secure funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 
Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  The Guatemalan AIDS proposal, 
slightly modified since its last presentation in Geneva in 
March, will be voted on during the week of October 13-17 at 
the Global Fund's third round of proposal approvals in Chiang 
Mai, Thailand.  Belize and Guatemala are the only CentAm 
countries to have had their proposals rejected in the first 
and second rounds.  End Summary. 
 
2. Due to widespread concerns in-country of government 
financial accountability, the Guatemalan proposal puts UNDP 
in a fiduciary agent role - a strategy used effectively in 
other sectors and with multilateral projects to ensure 
effective and timely program execution.  Guatemala's proposal 
seeks just under $41 million, $7 million less than its last 
proposal, for a 5 year period that would strengthen the 
existing country coordination mechanism, as well expand 
education, prevention, and treatment programs.  The proposal 
is a revision of earlier proposals.  The latest proposal has 
an administrative overhead of 5 percent, and its goals 
include: 
 
--Targeting preventative measures at the most vulnerable 
populations, 
 
--Involving NGO's and civil society, primarily in awareness 
and preventative programs, 
 
--Reducing the mother-child transmission rate from 30 percent 
to 5 percent over 5 years, and 
 
--Reducing opportunistic infections by 50 percent and the 
mortality of those infected by 30 percent over the same 5 
years. 
 
3.  Comment: An AIDS epidemic can still be avoided in 
Guatemala.  However, Guatemala's youthful population is the 
largest in Central America and, without outside AIDS funding, 
is increasingly at risk.  Guatemala currently has about the 
same number of AIDS cases as Honduras, Central America's most 
afflicted country in terms of percentage of population. 
Honduras secured a $45 million program in the first round, 
whereas Guatemala's higher per capita income pushed it to the 
least competitive category for proposals (2A).  Income 
distribution in Guatemala is highly skewed and the true size 
of Guatemala's vulnerable population is likely 
underestimated.  As the GOG presentation pointed out, it will 
be a true tragedy and far more expensive if Guatemala must 
wait for external AIDS funding until the epidemic is 
exploding. 
HAMILTON