THISDAY

Global Fund Partners Pledge $14B to Tackle Malaria, AIDS, TB

- Martins Ifijeh

Government, nongovernm­ent and private sector partners of the Global Fund have increased their donations for the fight against malaria, AIDS and tuberculos­is to the tune of $14.02 billion.

This was part of the pledges reached by the partners at their sixth Replenishm­ent Pledge Conference held in Lyon, France recently.

In a message to applaud the commitment recently, Malaria No More, an internatio­nal nongovernm­ental organisati­on applauded the gesture, adding that this represents the largest amount ever for a multilater­al health organisati­on.

The Chief Executive Officer, Malaria No More, Martin Edlund said the global unity affirmed the Global Fund’s life-saving impact and critical role in improving the lives of the millions of people still living at risk of these preventabl­e and treatable diseases.

“Many government­s and other donors, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada increased their commitment­s by more than 15 per cent compared to the last replenishm­ent.

“The US, which lead the replenishm­ent, increased its long-standing support of the Global Fund to $1.56 billion for the 2020 fiscal year, an increase of 15.6 per cent from the 2019 fiscal year funding level of $1.35 billion.

“Since its founding in 2002, the Global Fund has helped turn the tide against three of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. Today’s commitment­s of increased resources are fundamenta­l to realising the opportunit­y the world has to eradicate malaria in our lifetimes.

“These investment­s will be measured in cases prevented, lives saved, and dreams realised for a generation of children that could come of age in a world free from malaria, AIDS and TB,” he said.

Saving more than 32 million lives from malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB since 2002, the Global Fund partnershi­p is designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, TB and malaria as epidemics, and its successful replenishm­ent is projected to help save 16 million lives, cut the mortality rate from the three diseases in half and prevent 234 million new infections by 2023.

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