Burundi is preparing to roll out the malaria vaccine by 2024, announced the Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS. Dr Sylvie Nzeyimana was defending the bill on the ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, signed in Bujumbura on August 10, 2016, which was adopted by 98 votes for and one against at the plenary session held on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

Since the launch of its activities in 2002," explained Minister Sylvie Nzeyimana in her explanatory statement, "the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has already approved 16 grant agreements for Burundi amounting to more than 543 million US dollars, including 30 million US dollars for the fight against the COVID-19. The support from the Global Fund contributes to the purchase of medicines covering 100% of Burundi’s needs for tuberculosis, 90% for AIDS and 85% for malaria, including 100% of the mosquito nets for the mass campaign.

Despite this impressive performance, relations between the Government of Burundi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) are clouded by the fact that the GFATM channels its grants through the UNDP instead of forwarding them directly to the Government through the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS.

When the committee asked about the reasons for the delay in ratifying this Convention, the government envoy put forward a combination of factors linked to: (i) the context of the additional safeguards policy applied to Burundi’s portfolio by the Global Fund, which has entrusted the management of grants to the UNDP to the detriment of national entities following the security context, which has caused problems in the partnership between Burundi and bilateral and multilateral partnerships, and (ii) the frequent changes in the persons responsible for monitoring that issue at the level of Global Fund.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, who rejected the argument of the political and security situation, pointed out that it was mismanagement that was at the root of this change of recipient. The Right Honorable Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe made clear this point with full knowledge of the facts. He added that not only had he worked with the Global Fund during his career, but he had also been asked to mediate in situations where the Ministry of Public Health and the Global Fund were at loggerheads.

This intervention by the Speaker of the Lower House of the parliament of Burundi tranquilized the MPs, whose reactions to the body of the bill had been so critical that some had gone so far as to suggest a second reading of the Convention.
To illustrate the situation, the Right Honorable Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe made a comparison between a child in the wrong and a responsible father. As a result of its mismanagement, the Government of Burundi has been sanctioned by the Global Fund, through a change of recipients.

To admit its guilty, recommended the President of the National Assembly, the Government of Burundi will have to demonstrate its change of mindset by means of these three elements: firstly, applying the program budget; secondly, identifying the expected results; and thirdly, drawing up objectively verifiable indicators (OVIs).
In fact, an initiative has already been taken in this context, as stated by Minister Sylvie Nzeyimana, who personally visited the Global Fund’s headquarters in Geneva. This visit was crowned with success, as the ministry has already received a small portion of the fund’s annual subsidies of 8,000,000 US dollars. And the Speaker of the National Assembly advised her to return with these recommendations. The ultimate purpose being to repatriate grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to the Government of Burundi.