Global Fund Appeal

Date: 28.02.09

Created in 2001 by Kofi Annan, the Global Fund, according to many public health experts, is the most innovative, far-reaching, results- driven health financing mechanism in the world. Globally, it provides two-thirds of the external financing for TB and malaria, and a quarter of the financing for HIV/AIDS. Pasted below is a letter to the Finance Ministers of the G7 who met in Rome, Italy on February 14, 2009. The letter urges G7 nations to take a leading role by pledging new money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which is facing a $5 billion dollar gap in funding for 2009 and 2010.

The 5 billion dollar gap is not a crisis akin to the global financial problems we are currently experiencing. The gap actually exists because the Global Fund and applicant countries have done such a good job of increasing technical expertise and capacity such that triple the number of proposals passed the technical review in 2008 ($3.1 billion compared to $1.1 billion in the previous round). Endemic countries have stepped up to the plate in submitting strong, technically sound proposals, but donor country pledges have not kept pace.

If not supported by Global Fund health programs, some of the most vulnerable populations in the world will feel double or triple the impact of this international economic crisis. G7 countries must be encouraged to increase commitments to the Global Fund.

Please sign the attached letter and urge G7 governments to keep their promises to a fully funded Global Fund that will continue to save millions of lives around the world. Sign-ons are still being accepted for this letter: organization name and country can be sent to vwu(at)results.org

Thank you in advance for your support.

More information is available at www.action.org

Download the letter in English