The biggest player in the international fight against Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria has fallen short of its aims to raise $18bn, in order to save an estimated 23 million lives between 2027 and 2029.
World leaders and ambassadors met on Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa to pledge money to the fund at the sidelines of the G20 summit. Every $1bn under the target represents potentially 1.3 million lives lost. So far the fund the fund has raised $11.34bn, leaving it almost is $7bn under target with some pledges still to come after the deadline.
It’s the first time the fundraising event has been held in Africa since the Global Fund’s founding more than 20 years ago.
The UK announced its pledge of £850m to the fund on 11 November – a fall from £1bn in 2022, despite co-hosting the fundraising event. The reduction, first reported by The Independent, comes as part of plans to shift money away from foreign aid to pay for defence.
It came weeks before a tough UK Budget expected to bring tax rises.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “In today’s volatile world, we must prioritise spending that makes a genuine difference and supports both growth at home and globally.
“That is why we will continue to support the Global Fund, whose work is at the cutting edge of fighting the world’s deadliest diseases. It is an investment in economic growth and stability, and a prime example of our modern approach to development.”
International development secretary Jenny Chapman said that, since 2002 when the Global Fund was founded, the UK’s investment had, “helped save over 70 million lives and reduce deaths from AIDS, TB, and malaria by 63 per cent.
“These are not just statistics, they represent families spared heartbreak, parents who can watch their children grow and communities strengthened by health and by hope,” she told the summit.
The US pledged $4.6bn (£3.5bn) – a fall from its $6bn pledge in 2022, though some of this money was withheld after Donald Trump took office.
The Independent has already discovered deaths linked to Trump’s decision to withhold money from the fund, which was used to provide HIV services in lower-income countries.
Director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, “sudden and unplanned cuts” to global aid would, “imperil progress against global health in general and HIV, TB and malaria in particular.
“We have opportunities including new bed nets, new mosquito control technologies, new long-acting therapeutics and, in the near future, new vaccines for TB,” he said, but there were also “significant challenges” including increasing drug and insecticide resistance and lack of access to health services.
The negotiations went up to the wire, with someone close to the process saying the fund was still waiting to hear from key donors as of Thursday evening.
