Global Fund Partnership Rallies the Private Sector to Step Up the Fight Against Epidemics

24 January 2019

L-R: Seth Berkley, CEO, Gavi; Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair, Gavi; Bono, Co-Founder, ONE and (RED); Gayle Smith, President & CEO, ONE; Peter Sands, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria.

At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Bill Gates, Bono, Gayle Smith, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Seth Berkley join the Global Fund’s Executive Director Peter Sands to call on world leaders and the private sector to step up the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The Global Fund recently announced its Sixth Replenishment fundraising target of US$14 billion for the next three years to help save 16 million lives and get the world back on track to end AIDS, TB and malaria as epidemics. Leveraging the private sector’s expertise and resources are critical to this success, and the Global Fund is calling on the private sector to mobilize at least US$1 billion to step up the fight.

“Investing in global health is one of the best investments the world can make,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Every US dollar invested in the Global Fund over the 2021 to 2023 period will have a return in broader economic gains of US$19, and of US$2 dollars in direct productivity gains. In addition to saving millions of lives, that’s an amazing return on investment.”

To date, the private sector has contributed over US$2.7 billion to the Global Fund, including more than US$600 million through Product (RED), as well as providing valuable expertise in areas such as strengthening supply chains and providing innovative technical solutions to tracking health data.