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On Tuesday 12 July the APPG co-hosted a special event to mark the progress that has been made by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria ahead of its Fifth Replenishment pledging conference in Montreal on 16 September.
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Investments from the Global Fund have saved over 17 million lives and led to a one-third decline in deaths from the three diseases in countries where it invests.
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Its projects have treated over 13 million people for TB and it provides over three quarters of all international finance to end the TB epidemic.
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In short, the Fund was critical in making progress towards the Millennium Development Goals’ target to halt and reverse the spread of the three epidemics; and it will be too in realising the Sustainable Development Goals’ target to end the epidemics by 2030.
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Given the UK Government helped broker those Goals, this replenishment is an important test of its commitment to delivering on that promise.
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As the third largest donor to the Fund, the UK can be proud of the role that it has played in the progress the Fund has made to date. Indeed, our chair, Nick Herbert MP, was pleased to host the event marking the Fund’s success – with speakers including the Executive Director of the Global Fund Mark Dybul, Annie Lennox and the then Minister for International Development Nick Hurd MP.
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During his remarks, the Minister said that the Global Fund was ‘one of the great human success stories’ and that now ‘was not the time for the UK to lose ambition on international development’, noting that ‘the Global Fund has saved a staggering number of lives, but we must not be complacent’. He reaffirmed that the Government was committed to realising a successful replenishment.
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Many donors – including Canada, Japan and the EC – have already announced that they will be increasing their contributions at this replenishment by at least 20%, and the US Government has pledged to provide up to 33% of the total funds needed. These increases are crucial: we are at a tipping point in the trajectory of the epidemics and without increased investment, there is the risk of resurgence with potentially huge economic and social costs.
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With this in mind, over 30 parliamentarians attended the event to show their support for the Fund and to back calls for the UK Government to pledge £1.2 billion to the Global Fund at this replenishment, a 20% increase on the UK’s last pledge.
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The event was co-hosted with the APPGs on HIV & AIDS and Malaria & NTDs.
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