The Global Fund targets $15 billion to fight HIV, TB and malaria

“We can invest now or pay forever,” says Dr Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund, as Malawian President Joyce Banda says African countries are doing their utmost to provide human and financial resources for the health of their people but need the strong support of the Global Fund to succeed.

According to the Global Fund which has convened a donors’ conference in Brussels on April 9 and 10, it intends to raise US$15 billion so that it can effectively support countries in fighting HIV, TB and malaria in the 2014-2016 period.

“Innovations in science and implementation have given us a historic opportunity to completely control these diseases. If we do not, the long-term costs will be staggering,” Dr Dybul said.

The Global Fund will also present overall needs assessment for the 2014-2016 periods and an update on results and impact from recent years, which have helped achieve dramatic success in fighting AIDS, TB and malaria. Donors will be invited to a once-every-three-years pledging conference, known as the Global Fund’s Fourth Replenishment, in late 2013.

Working together with technical partners at WHO, UNAIDS, Roll Back Malaria and the Stop TB Partnership, the Global Fund formulated a needs assessment that demonstrates that raising US$15 billion would lead to a transformative effect in the incidence and death rates of HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria.

According to a press release issued by the Global Fund, when combined with other funding, including an estimated US$37 billion from domestic sources in implementing countries and US$24 billion from other international sources, a US$15 billion contribution to the Global Fund would allow the collective work to address 87 per cent of the global resource needs to fight these three diseases, estimated at a total of US$87 billion.

The Global Fund estimates that with this level of funding, antiretroviral therapy could become available to more than 18 million people in affected countries by 2016, up from 8 million in 2012.

President Banda said that raising money for the Global Fund was essential to defeat AIDS, TB and malaria.

“The progress we have made with the support of Global Fund has shown us what we can
do when we come together. Defeating these diseases is a shared responsibility. African countries are doing their utmost to provide human and financial resources for the health of their people. But we need strong support of the Global Fund to succeed,” President Banda said.