BRUSSELS – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria announced a goal of raising US$15 billion so
that it can effectively support countries in fighting these three
infectious diseases in the 2014-2016 period.
The Global Fund is determined to accelerate the gains
achieved in recent years against AIDS, TB and malaria through strategic
investment in programs that can save millions of lives and tens of
billions of dollars in future costs. While acknowledging
the challenging fiscal environment in many countries, the Global Fund
and its partners point to the remarkable value for money that investing
in health provides.
“We have a choice: we can invest now or pay forever,”
said Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “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.”
President Joyce Banda of Malawi, a leader in efforts
to prevent and treat infectious diseases in Africa, 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 and has shown us what we can do when we come together,” said
President Banda. “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.”
The Global Fund is convening a donor’s conference in
Brussels on 9 and 10 April to present an overall needs assessment for
the 2014-2016 period 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.
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 percent of the global resource needs to fight these
three diseases, estimated at a total of US$87 billion.
Reaching the Global Fund’s goal, together with other
funding, would mean that 17 million patients with tuberculosis and with
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis could receive treatment, saving almost 6
million lives over this three-year period.
This level of funding would prevent millions of new
cases of malaria, and would save approximately 196,000 additional lives
each year than with current funding levels by preventing a resurgence
and renewed epidemic of malaria.
It would also mean preventing more than one million
new infections of HIV each year – saving billions of dollars in care and
treatment for the long-term. Antiretroviral therapy could become
available to more than 18 million people in affected
countries by 2016, up from 8 million in 2012.
Overall, effective funding means that collective
efforts can turn what scientists call high-transmission epidemics into
low-level endemics, essentially making them manageable health problems
instead of global emergencies.
The new funding model recently launched by the Global
Fund can achieve greater impact by encouraging ambitious programs and
by focusing interventions and financing for specific populations. By
reaching highly vulnerable, marginalized and
stigmatized groups, including young women, sex workers, people who
inject drugs, men who have sex with men and prisoners, more programs
will maximize impact while advancing human rights.
The new funding model also strives to align
investments in HIV, TB and malaria with national health strategies while
strengthening health systems and serving as a platform for promoting
the health of a person rather than only combatting specific
diseases.
“We can
defeat these diseases by working with partners,” said Dr Dybul.
“Collectively, we know what has to be done, and we know how to do it.
But we have to work together to succeed.”
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The
Global Fund is an international financing institution dedicated to
attracting and disbursing resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS,
TB
and malaria. The Global Fund promotes partnerships between governments,
civil society, the private sector and affected communities, the most
effective way to help reach those in need. This innovative approach
relies on country ownership and performance-based
funding, meaning that people in countries implement their own programs
based on their priorities and the Global Fund provides financing where
verifiable results are achieved.
Since
its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has supported more than 1,000
programs in 151 countries, providing AIDS treatment for 4.2 million
people,
anti-tuberculosis treatment for 9.7 million people and 310 million
insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria. The Global Fund
works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral
organizations to supplement existing efforts in dealing
with the three diseases.
For more information, please contact:
SETH FAISON
Head of Communications
Mobile: +41 79 788 1163
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