FIGURE 2-1 Contributions to the global fund to date.

SOURCE: The Global Fund, 2004c.

ported ARVs are a bit more expensive in Latin America, where income levels are slightly higher and resource constraints somewhat less pronounced, although negotiations are in progress to lower drug prices there as well. The drug prices are higher in Eastern Europe as well, where the annual cost of ART per patient can run as high as US$1,000. These figures include only commodities (e.g., drugs, very simple diagnostics) and not costs for health care workers and other basic infrastructure.

Many are concerned that the Global Fund monies have been slow to roll out and that, despite agreements being in place, some countries do not yet have the promised funds or ARVs. Total global funding budgeted for the fund in 2003 for HIV/AIDS was an estimated US$4.2 billion (including funding from all donor governments and UN agencies and disbursements from The World Bank, foundations, and major nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]). However, estimates from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) indicate that actual spending in 2003 totaled only about US$3.6 billion (UNAIDS, 2003). It is believed that much of the discrepancy is due to the lag time between the receipt and disbursement of contributions to the Global Fund, as well as to differences between bud-