Debt for Health

Australia has offered to write off A$75 million (about $60 million) in commercial debt to Indonesia on one condition: Jakarta must invest half that amount in tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment programs.

TB is a public health priority in Indonesia. According to the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2008, the country ranked third after India and the People’s Republic of China on the list of 22 high-burden TB countries in the world.

Australia is the second country to support the Debt2Health debt-conversion initiative of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Germany was the first to join the initiative.

The Global Fund, a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector, and communities, hopes Debt2Health will enable poor countries to reach their Millennium Development Goals in public health by freeing up resources to fight HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. •