Council for International Development

What does the second decade hold for the Global Fund?

Posted by on 3 February 2012 | 0 Comments

2 February 2012 -- At Davos last week, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria received an unexpected birthday gift from Bill Gates in the form of a $750m "promissory note" to help shore up its faltering finances.

In pledging his hefty financial support, Gates effectively rescued the fund's 10-year birthday celebrations. Despite its staggering successes – including helping put 3.3 million people on Aids treatment, 8.6 million on anti-tuberculosis treatment and providing 230m insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria – the fund's recent troubles had threatened to overshadow its accomplishments as it prepared to mark a decade as the world's main financier of programmes to fight these three global epidemics.

In recent years the fund has become mired in much-documented struggles with corruption, management breakdowns and a crippling $2bn funding shortfall, all compounded by the swiftness of the global economic downturn and donor fatigue.

There are fears that the knock-on decision to suspend the fund's 11th round of funding and not disperse any more money until 2014 will have catastrophic consequences. There are predictions that without continued support countries such as Zambia and Malawi will struggle to keep pace with infection rates and keep people on lifesaving medication, impacting on millions of vulnerable patients.

Gate's pledge was a show of faith that provided more than just a much-needed cash boost as he urged donors and the world to keep confidence in the fund's ability to "[get] so much bang for our buck". Read more

The Guardian