Countries, donors pledge $12 bn to fight AIDS,TB, Malaria

(Vatican Radio) World leaders gathered in Washington D.C. this week increased funding to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years. The Global Fund, a world body committed to the prevention and eradication of these diseases, announced that donors had pledged 12 billion U.S. dollars for the coming three years, a 30% increase over initial pledges made in 2010.

The Global Fund’s triennial “replenishment” conference was held in the U.S. capital from December 2-3. Leaders from 25 nations, as well as the EU Commission, private foundations, corporations and faith-based organizations attended the meeting.

Though less than the 15 billion dollar commitment that organizers had hoped for, this year’s donations will provide diagnosis and treatment to 68% of those who need it around the world.

The Global Fund reports that this year’s pledges represent “the largest amount ever committed to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It was a 30 percent increase over the US$9.2 billion in firm pledges secured in 2010 at the start of the 2011-2013 period.”

According to the Fund, global leaders “voiced a broad consensus that we are at a historic moment in the fight to defeat AIDS, TB and Malaria. Scientific advances are giving us the ability to completely control these diseases. Harnessing these funds, we can make a transformational difference in the lives of millions of people.”


The Global Fund celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2012. Dr. Christoph Benn, Director of External Relations for the Global Fund, says over the past eleven years, the organization has helped to significantly lower the number of people worldwide who are infected by these three lethal illnesses.

“The fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is showing amazing results,” he says. “If we go back a couple of years ago when AIDS was overwhelming many countries in Africa and in other continents when people who had no access to treatment and millions of people were dying, it was a very desperate situation. And with the support of the international community and through the Global Fund, it has been possible to turn that around in a way that many experts would not have expected just a couple of years ago. Now we have in Africa more than fifty percent of people suffering from AIDS now have access to the highly effective AIDS treatment and mortality rates have gone down in virtually all African countries.”

“We have spectacular declines in mortality from Malaria because we have been able to provide families with bed nets to protect them from mosquito bites; we have provided them with effective treatment and diagnostics and the same with Tuberculosis: the detection rates have gone up and success rates in treatment have gone up. So this is quite a spectacular success in international development. And the Global Fund, as the major international funder for the fight against these three diseases, has played a big part in that.”

Dr. Benn says though the Fund has helped bring preventative care and treatment to people in many countries, “we need to see greater progress in countries with the weakest infrastructures.” The Fund also supports Catholic health care facilities and Caritas.

Listen to Tracey McClure’s extended interview with Dr. Christoph Benn: