Intended for healthcare professionals

News

Germany donates €1bn to Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria

BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f566 (Published 25 January 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f566
  1. Anne Gulland
  1. 1London

The philanthropist Bill Gates has welcomed a €1bn (£0.9bn; $1.3bn) donation to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying that it would put the fund in a strong position when it asked for donations later in the year.

Dirk Niebel, Germany’s minister for economic cooperation and development, announced the donation at the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland, saying that the world needed to continue efforts to fight the spread of HIV, malaria, and other infectious diseases.

Gates, who unveiled a $750m donation to the fund at last year’s forum,1 said that the announcement would provide momentum to the fund. He said that “2013 will be an important year for the Global Fund. It will go through the funding round for 2014 to 2016, and this [donation] is a nice way to start it off.”

The fund’s donation conference, which takes place every three years, enables the fund to make long term financial plans.

Germany’s donation, which will be spread over five years, is a sign of confidence in the fund, which was reorganised after a funding crisis in 2011. The organisation had to cancel its last funding round because of a drop in donations caused by the global financial crisis and concerns over corruption.2

Germany has a seat on the fund’s board so would be able to monitor how the money was disbursed, said Niebel, who described the fund as a “success story.”

“The fund now works more effectively, achieves more impact, and is less prone to corruption so is better positioned for the future than ever before,” he said.

“The Global Fund has succeeded in overcoming a serious crisis and has completely reformed itself,” he added.

The reorganisation included the departure of the previous executive director and the appointment of an interim general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, who streamlined the fund’s management structures.

Mark Dybul, who was on the third day of his new job as executive director of the Global Fund, said that Germany’s donation was a “pretty good start.”

He added, “It’s a great signal to the rest of the world that we all need to get in the game together.”

He said that the world could defeat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. But he added, “We need funding to get it done. We are at a critical moment for funding, and we need a big push this year.”

Elsewhere at the forum in Davos Gates told a panel that the United Nations’ millennium development goals, which will expire in 2015, had “improved the human condition faster than ever before.”

“At the base year, 1990, 12 million children died every year. By 2015 it will be below six million,” he said.

The United Kingdom’s prime minister, David Cameron, who was also on the panel, praised the simplicity and accountability of the millennium development goals and warned against complicating them if they were updated in 2015.

Notes

Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f566

References