Global Fund Receives Pledges of US$3.7 Billion for 2006-2007
06 September 2005
London - International donors pledged a total of US$ 3.7 billion to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the two-year period of 2006 and 2007.
"The pledges made here today will go a long way towards ensuring the longer-term sustainability of the Global Fund," said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chaired the replenishment conference. "They will help countries establish comprehensive programs to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and they will provide us all with an important source of hope and encouragement for the future; hope that we can make major progress in reversing the spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases."
The replenishment conference was hosted by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It was the last of three meetings to assess Global Fund performance and resource needs. The previous meetings took place in Stockholm in March and in Rome in June. Participants stressed that increased funding for the Global Fund needs to be accompanied by improved coordination among international and bilateral donors and sufficient technical assistance to ensure that funds are spent effectively.
"We are investing more in the Global Fund, because needs are growing to tackle these diseases and the Global Fund needs to keep pace with that," said Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development. "It is important that the Global Fund continues to work well, and gets the money to where it is needed. That is why the UK is a strong supporter of the work being done to measure the results of what the Global Fund is achieving."
The amount pledged by 29 donors in London represents more than half of the Global Fund’s total resource needs of US$ 7 billion for the two-year period. This figure does not include expected future pledges from a number of major donors which signalled that their budget procedures prevent firm pledges for the full two-year period. A follow-up conference will be held in June 2006 to secure additional pledges.
"These pledges form a strong base for continued funding for all the Global Fund’s ongoing programs and will allow us to further expand our funding for new programs to fight the three diseases," said Dr Carol Jacobs, the Chair of the Global Fund Board. "It begins to close the gap in meeting our financial needs and provides great encouragement for future fund-raising efforts."
This is the first time the Global Fund has attempted a formal replenishment process," said Dr Richard Feachem, the Executive Director of the Global Fund. "It has been a success and makes us hopeful we will reach our total needs by 2007.