HIV/Malaria/TB : Stakeholders Step Up Advocacy for Contributions to Global Fund
The Global Fund requires US$18 billionto speed up the fight to end HIV/TB, and Malaria in low and middle-income countries by 2030.
Five African Presidents ; DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa launched the Global Fund’s US$18 Billion campaign in February 2022, to step up the fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria.
This amount of money is expected to be raised during the seventh replenishment conference of the Global Fund slated for September 19, 2022 in New York City in the United States.
US, President Joe Biden, will chair the session that will be attended by donor countries, private sector organizations, community health leaders and the civil society.
Ahead of the replenishment conference, civil society leaders, community health experts, and health organizations met in Yaounde on September 8, 2022 to step up advocacy for financial contributions to the Global Fund. The meeting was organized by Impact Santé Afrique – an African non-governmental organization that is committed to reducing the Malaria burden and improving the health through advocacy and strategic communication.
Malaria, HIV and TB are the world’s deadliest pandemics which account for high annual mortality rates in low and middle income countries, including Cameroon. Millions of lives will be lost if the fight against these diseases is not accelerated.
What will the Global Fund Achieve ?
In 2019, the Global Fund announced a $14 billion target to step up the fight against Malaria,TB and HIV in low and middle income countries. This amount was raised during the sixth replenishment conference that held in Lyon, France in October 2019.
Three years later, the Global Fund has stepped up its budget to US$18billion. The Fund’s Results Report reveals that significant progress has been lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global financial needs.
Accordingly, the US$18 billion budget will go a long way in helping countries to simultaneously conceive and implement projects to fight these diseases and prepare for future pandemics.
It will also reinforce health systems by strengthening laboratories, diagnostic tools, supply chain management, information and financial systems; tackle antimicrobial resistance, including drug-resistant TB and reinforce community health systems.
The fund aims to reduce inequalities in health care delivery and reduce the life expectancy gap between countries by 9% by 2026.
Also among key objectives of the 7th replenishment investment case include: save 20 million lives and reduce the cumulative mortality from Malaria, HIV and TB rate by 64%; reduce the number of deaths from these diseases to 950,000 by 2026, contrary to 2.4 million in 2020 and 4 million in 2005; as well as prevent over 450million new infections by reducing the combined incidence rate of these diseases by 58%.
The Fund’s US$18 billion need will also accelerate progress toward achieving the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) -“health and well-being for all”, universal health coverage, and strengthen pandemic preparedness.
The Global Fund
The Global Fund is the largest multilateral provider of grants for health systems.
It relies on a collective contribution of governments, the private sector, and civil society to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in ways that contribute to strengthening health systems.
Over the past 20 years, the Global Fund has invested more than US$53 billion in saving 44 million lives and reducing the combined death rate from HIV, TB, and malaria by more than half in low and middle-income countries where it invests.
Recently, the Fund set up a new ambitious strategy which puts people and communities at the center of the fight against the world’s deadliest diseases. It focuses on building people-centered and integrated health systems especially in communities. The new strategy also fights human rights-related hinderances and gender inequalities that slow down progress against the three diseases.
Kathy Neba Sina
