Gates' Gift Spotlights the Failure of G8
Donors
Washington,
August 9, 2006 – Public health advocates today praised a new $500
million
pledge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Global Fund to
Fight
AIDS, TB and Malaria. They also warned that without major funding
increases
from donor governments, this major stamp of approval would not be
enough to
ensure that the Global Fund has the funding needed to dramatically
scale up
AIDS, TB and malaria programs. The advocates include Global AIDS
Alliance,
RESULTS, Health GAP, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Advocates for Youth,
Project-RING of the Japan AIDS and Society Association, ActionAid,
Action
Against AIDS Germany, and AIDES.
“When
the richest man on earth provides such generous
support for the Global Fund the risk is that some donor governments may
mistakenly think they are now off the hook,” warned Joanne Carter,
legislative
director of RESULTS. “But the Gates’ pledge must be seen as an
endorsement and
a challenge to wealthy countries because in reality, we will never
break the
back of AIDS, TB and malaria without robust increases in donor
government
support for the Global Fund.”
The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that
they would contribute $500 million to the Global Fund over the next
five years,
and would make $200 million of this available for the upcoming sixth
funding
round for which countries are currently applying. While this
contribution is a
welcome addition to the Global Fund’s capacity to fight the biggest
infectious
killers of our time, it is only a small portion of the total global
need – $31.2
billion annually by 2010 for AIDS, TB and malaria.
Even
after the new Gates’ Foundation pledge is factored in,
the Global Fund has a funding gap of $1.8 billion just for 2006 and
2007
expenditures. Furthermore, to meet the Millennium Development Goal for
AIDS, TB
and malaria, the Global Fund estimates that it will need annual
contributions
of approximately $11 billion by 2010. If these resource gaps are not
filled,
the human cost will be immeasurable. New expansion would be undermined
and
people already being treated with Global Fund resources could be forced
out of
treatment, increasing drug-resistant strains and leading to an untold
loss of
life.
At the
recent G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, the
G8 reaffirmed their support for the Global Fund,
which was created at the 2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan.
The G8 leaders pledged to fulfill their “prior G8 commitments” on
infectious
disease by “mobilizing support for the Global Fund.” In addition, the
G8 called
on all concerned to develop a “four-year strategy, aimed at building a
solid
foundation for the activities of the Fund in the years ahead.”
However,
advocates have criticized the G8 for not yet
stating how its own commitments will be fulfilled. In a letter to G8
leaders
prior to the St. Petersburg Summit, religious leaders – including His
Holiness
the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and Bishop Mark
Hanson,
President of the Lutheran World Federation and Presiding Bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, wrote, “The G8 countries need
to
demonstrate their collective effort to adequately respond to the crisis
and
show their commitment through concrete pledges for Round 6 of the
Global Fund.
For the longer term, the establishment of timetables is crucial to
achieve the
targets of 0.7 per cent of gross national products for official
development
assistance by 2015.”
“The
Gates Foundation has stepped forward—but G8 donor governments
appear to be stepping back,” said Asia Russell, the alternate Global
Fund Board
member for developed country NGOs. “The wealthiest countries in the
world have
committed to attaining universal access to HIV treatment, prevention
and care
by 2010. Will they put their money where their mouths are?”
Donor
governments will need to follow the lead of the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation and dramatically increase their level of
support
for the Global Fund if the international community’s pledge to work
towards
universal access for people living with HIV and AIDS is to be
fulfilled. The
Global Fund is also critically important in achieving the targets of
the bold
new Global Plan to Stop TB—cutting TB deaths in half and saving 14
million
lives in the next decade, as well as the fight against malaria. The
Fund
provides a full two-thirds of all external funding for these two
diseases.
+++++++
For more information,
and on-site updates during the XVI
International AIDS Conference (13-18 August, 2006 in Toronto, Canada)
please contact:
Jove Oliver,
RESULTS, 202-783-7100 ext. 120, joliver@results.org
Asia Russell,
Health GAP/Global Fund Board, 267-475-2645 asia@healthgap.org
David Bryden,
Global AIDS Alliance, 202-789-0432 ext. 211, dbryden@globalaidsalliance.org
Naina
Dhingra, Advocates
for Youth, naina@advocatesforyouth.org
Aditi
Sharma,
Action Aid, +91 99 100 46 560, aditi.sharma@actionaid.org
