Addis Ababa – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s Board of Directors has made an overall approval of grants with a two-year commitment of US$2.4 billion.

It is the ninth time the Global Fund Board approved new proposals to support programs fighting the three diseases. The total two-year value of the programs recommended for funding was US$2.4 billion; the second largest ever approved by the Global Fund, following a US$2.75 billion round in 2008. The Global Fund has now approved a total funding of US$18.4 billion for 144 countries since it was created in 2002.

“These grants enable countries around the world to address some of the main problems they are struggling with every day,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian Health Minister and Chair of the Global Fund Board. “These grants are based on the countries’ own needs and priorities and they are therefore a particularly effective source of financing.”

The Global Fund also approved the roll-out of the pilot phase of a facility to reduce prices for effective malaria medicines (AMFm). The Pilot phase will take place in nine African countries and Cambodia and be funded through US$216 million in funding from UNITAID, the United Kingdom government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It aims to provide access for everybody to effective artemisinin combination treatments for malaria and save lives by reducing the use of old, ineffective medicines.

The Global Fund Board decided to launch its next round of grants in May 2010. This round of funding will be considered for approval at a Board meeting to be held some time between November 2010 and January 2011.

“We are seeing a tremendous demand for funding,” said Michel Kazatchkine, the Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Countries are showing that they are able to effectively turn large amounts of money from donors into prevention, care and treatment of AIDS, TB and malaria, which in turn will save millions of lives. It also means that we need significantly more resources in the future. We may not be able to continue approving such amounts of financing and see continued progress in health in the coming years unless donor countries scale up their funding even further than what they have done so far. ”

The Global Fund Board also approved a new grant architecture to simplify management of Global Fund financing. The reform includes a transition from the current grant-by-grant funding model to continuous funding streams for countries. This is in response to concerns by some countries which now have to manage a large number of different grants. By introducing a continuous funding stream, the Global Fund aims to simplify the reporting and facilitate more strategic, long-term planning for countries.

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The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases. 

Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has become the dominant financier of programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with approved funding of US$ 18.4 billion for more than 600 programs in 144 countries. To date, programs supported by the Global Fund have saved 4.5 million lives through providing AIDS treatment for 2.3 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 5.4 million people and the distribution of 88 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria. 

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Hurst – Communications
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E-mail: andrew.hurst@theglobalfund.org 

Marcela Rojo – Communications
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Mobile: + 41 79 540 2667
E-mail: marcela.rojo@theglobalfund.org