EU’s contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will increase by 27 % compared to previous years. The total amount for the period 2017 - 2019 will be €470 million. This grant supports the Global Fund's objective to help save 8 million lives over the next three years and reach the target of ending the epidemics of HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria by 2030.
Ending epidemics is one of 17 sustainable development goals, adopted last year by the United Nations, to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity to all. The Global Fund is a partnership organization founded in 2002 and is designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.
EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, said today (3.3): "One of the lessons learnt after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the clear need to strengthen health systems in developing countries, so that infectious diseases can be controlled for good.”
He continued that “With these €470 million, the EU's contribution to the Global Fund will contribute to achieve our shared ambition to save 8 million more lives and avert up to 300 million infections".
Tamira Gunzburg, Brussels Director of The ONE Campaign, an advocacy organization, added: “ONE is extremely pleased with the EU’s pledge to increase funding to the Global Fund. The Global Fund is an incredibly effective mechanism in the fight against these diseases, and has saved 17 million lives to date.”
This year, the Global Fund is seeking to raise at least $13 billion for the next three year period (2017–19) to continue its work and to scale up the most effective new interventions in the fight against AIDS, TB, and malaria. Today, deaths from AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have dropped by more than one-third in the countries where the Global Fund invests.
Since the start of the Global Fund, the European Commission has contributed more than €1.5 billion to the Fund. The Global Fund also receives support from many EU Member States directly, bringing the contribution of the EU collectively to almost 50% of all resources received by the Global Fund.
The Brussels Times
