GENEVA (AN) — Almost two months after its major fundraising summit, the world's biggest disease-fighting fund added US$1.4 billion to its earlier pledges but still fell 13% short of its goal.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's board of directors said on Friday it welcomed the US$15.7 billion result from the seventh replenishment round it has held since its creation in 2002.
That was up from the US$14.25 billion haul announced from the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden on Sept. 21 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
The additional amount reflected last-minute pledges from India, Italy, Thailand and the United Kingdom. But the Global Fund, facing setbacks in public health caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, had sought US$18 billion to continue its efforts to lower the death rate from three diseases in developing countries.
"The fight to save lives, defeat pandemics and build a healthier, more equitable and more inclusive world, is a winnable one," said its board chair, Donald Kaberuka, a Rwandan economist and former African Development Bank president.
As a partnership of governments, the private sector and civil society, the Global Fund said it has invested more than US$55.4 billion in programs.
A historic moment for Global Health.With the UK USD 1 bilion pledge we have now have reached a total of USD 15.7 billion.Indeed the largest in the history of the @GlobalFund. https://t.co/rZehJVFZIc
— Donald Kaberuka (@DonaldKaberuka) November 18, 2022
Conflicts compounding health crises
Its largest single national donor, the United States, pledged US$6 billion over this next three-year funding cycle, and has given the fund nearly US$20 billion over two decades.
The next biggest government donors, France and Germany, pledged almost US$1.59 billion and US$1.29 billion, respectively, according to the Global Fund's latest tally.
Next were the U.K., with a nearly US$1.18 billion pledge; Japan, US$1.08 billion; Canada, US$904 million; and the European Commission, $710 million.
Apart from the 48 countries plus the E.C., the 27-nation European Union's executive branch, the Global Fund counted 24 private sector and non-government donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Product (RED) Campaign, which pledged US$926 million and US$150 million, respectively.
Based on the latest fundraising, the board said it has approved spending US$13.7 billion in more than 120 countries over the next three years to fight HIV, TB and malaria and strengthen those nations' health systems.
It also has adopted a new strategy that puts more emphasis on addressing gender-related barriers to health access, and studied how it might contribute to global pandemic preparedness with the World Health Organization and World Bank.
“The world is being struck by a combination of crises, including conflict, the accelerating impact of climate change, and food and energy price hikes," said Peter Sands, the Global Fund's executive director.
"All such crises fuel infectious disease threats,” he said. “Most conflicts kill more people through infectious disease than by bullets and bombs. Extreme weather events lead to upsurges in diseases like malaria. People who are hungry or cold succumb more quickly to deadly diseases."
