India Supports Global Fund Efforts to Mobilize Funds
05 September 2018
NEW DELHI - The Government of India today announced it would host the Global Fund's Preparatory Meeting of the Sixth Replenishment in February 2019, an important milestone to mobilize funds aimed at accelerating the end of AIDS, TB and malaria as epidemics and building stronger health systems.
The Preparatory Meeting will be held in New Delhi on 8 February 2019, and will provide partners with key information on the impact to be achieved and the financial resources needed to end the epidemics by 2030 in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The meeting is also a forum for representatives of governments, civil society, the private sector, multilateral agencies and communities affected by the diseases to share views on how to achieve the global goals through increased investment, innovation and a sharper focus on results.
The announcement was made by Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda, India’s minister for health and family welfare, who stressed the Government of India’s long-standing partnership with the Global Fund.
“India has long been a strategic partner of the Global Fund, both as an implementer and as a donor,” Nadda said. “The government of Prime Minister Modi is honored to further deepen this collaboration by hosting the Preparatory Meeting of the Sixth Replenishment in our country.”
In a demonstration of solidarity and shared responsibility, India donated US $20 million to the Global Fund in the last Replenishment conference in 2016.
Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, warmly welcomed India’s decision to hold the Preparatory Meeting of the Sixth Replenishment, and said it underlined India’s leadership on global health. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year called for India to end tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the global target.
“India is demonstrating commitment and long-term vision at a critical time in the fight against these infectious diseases,” Sands said. “Through effective partnerships we have saved millions of lives. Now we must work together to end these epidemics.”
The Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference will be hosted by France’s President Emmanuel Macron in 2019. The conference, which is held once every three years, expects to raise funds for the period 2020 through 2022.
The previous Preparatory Meeting was held in Tokyo in December 2015.