Health Fund Falls Well Short of Pledge Goal
BERLIN, 28 September: Donors pledged 9,7 billion US dollar Thursday to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at a fund-raising conference in Berlin – an increase over previous donations, but well short of the 15 billion to 18 billion dollar the fund had hoped to raise.
– Todays pledges are welcome, but more needs to be mobilized, said ActionAid, a coalition of groups pushing for more health care for poor countries.
It applauded the size of gifts from Spain (600 million dollar), Norway (205 million), Sweden (281 million) and the Netherlands (326 million), while saying the largest donors, including Germany (849 million), France (1,3 billion) and Britain (729 million), could have done more, given the strength of their economies.
(Tilføjelse u-landsnyt: Danmark har stillet 520 mio. kr., eller ca. 100 mio. dollar, i udsigt over 3 år, altså under halvdelen af Sverige og Norge)
The donations – meant to be spent over the next three years – do not include new pledges by the United States or Japan.
The United States committed only to maintain its annual contribution level, which would add up to 2,2 billion dollar over the three years, until Congress passes a new budget. Japan wants to announce its contribution when it plays host to the Group of 8 summit meeting next year; if it stayed level, it would be 184 million.
Other big donors included the European Commission, which pledged 425 million dollar, and the Gates Foundation, which pledged 300 million.
The fund, which has spent about 7 billion dollar in 136 countries since 2002, is the chief source of money for the fight against the three diseases. It says it has saved two million lives so far, largely through the distribution of mosquito nets and the provision of anti-AIDS drugs.
To hope to bring the diseases under control, the fund calculates that it will need to be spending 8 billion a year by 2010.
Kilde: The Push Journal
