Commitments amounting to $14 billion for the next three years for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria were announced by donors in Lyon, France, on Thursday at the Global Fund’s sixth replenishment conference.
This is largest amount ever raised for a multilateral health organization. The funds will help avert 234 million infections and save 16 million lives by 2030, according to the Global Fund.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria is an international financing and partnership organization that officially launched in 2002 to combat these devastating diseases. Its efforts have saved 32 million lives to date.
Speaking early on at the conference on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on word leaders and private donors to work together to reach the $14 billion target.
"I will not let anyone out of this room or leave Lyon until the $14 billion has been obtained,” he said, smiling. “And so later on, we will have it."
Macron committed more than $1.4 billion to Global Fund, which represents an increase of 20% from France’s last contribution.
France was not the only donor to step up and increase its pledge.
Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced a commitment of just over $331,000, which was the country’s first commitment ever to the organization.
This announcement was a result of a Global Citizen campaign launched in July that called on Muscat to make a pledge to the Global Fund. Global Citizens around the world sent emails to European donors in the lead up to the replenishment.
Both Canada and Germany announced pledges to the Global Fund in the last couple of months, in part thanks to the actions of Global Citizens calling for support. Canada’s pledge came in at about $699 million, and Germany’s at about $1.1 billion.
The replenishment also saw contributions from the US, the UK, Japan, Germany, Norway, and India, as well as from Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Cameroon, Burundi, and many more, including from new private sector donors.
The funds raised for the next three years will go toward establishing health programs in more than 100 countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
“This year, we promised the seven-year-olds of the world that we would end AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030 – the time they become adults – so they don’t have to,” Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, said in a closing statement. “Today’s remarkable demonstration of global solidarity shows that the world is committed to keep that promise, by working stronger, faster and together.”
Next month, world leaders will have the opportunity to do even more for global health at the Global Polio Eradication Initiative pledging moment in Abu Dhabi, and in June 2020, London will be hosting the replenishment conference for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Both initiatives work to provide access to key vaccines to vulnerable populations around the world and are vital in the fight to secure good health and well-being for all.