Global Fund Pledges Fall Short

London, 6 October: More than 40 donor governments, private donors, corporations and faith-based organisations have pledged a total of $11.7 billion over the next three years to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But this falls far short of even the lowest funding scenario target of $13 billion.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was gracious in welcoming the disappointing total: “At a time when so many governments are tightening their belts at home, those commitments send a powerful message: It shows how seriously world leaders want to do the right thing beyond their borders, too. It shows they understand the importance of health for all people”.

Three funding scenarios were laid out in by the Global Fund: one of $20 billion which would allow the most dramatic impact on the diseases; one of $17 billion for current work to continue and for some expansion; and one of $13 billion, where current projects could be sustained but no new ones undertaken.

Michel Kazatchkine, the Executive Director of the Global Fund, explained. “We need to recognise that this amount is not enough to meet expected demand. It will lead to difficult decisions in the next three years that could slow down the effort to beat the three diseases.”

The total pledged includes projections from those actors, including the UK government, who were not in a position to commit a firm figure to the Global Fund at this time.

The UK is currently in the middle of a Multilateral Aid review, and will not be announcing commitments until it is completed early 2011. However it is expected that the UK’s Department for International Development will commit anything up to £384 million for the next three years of funding.

To read the full press release of the Global Fund’s Replenishment conference, please click here.

To access the Global Fund’s resource allocation scenarios for round 10, please click here.

For more information, please contact Diana Thomas [email protected]