GENEVA, 5 October 2010: UNAIDS welcomes commitments made by donors at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria’s replenishment conference in New York, which was chaired this year by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
USA led the donations—pledging the largest ever financial commitment to the Global Fund, 4 billion dollars over three years––a 38 per cent increase over the preceding 3 year period.
More than 40 countries, including countries with emerging economies, private foundations and corporations committed more than 11,7 billion dollars for the next three years to fund health programmes for the three diseases.
– These pledges come at a critical time. We are just starting to see returns on investments with new infections coming down in most high-burden countries and more people than ever on antiretroviral treatment, said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, adding: – This is a significant and necessary first milestone, but insufficient to meet aspirations. Public and private donors must continue to mobilize resources in order to secure future progress in the aids response.
Despite the record pledges to the Global Fund there is still an overall funding shortfall for the aids response. For the first time in 15 years, overall aids funding has flat lined. This raises serious concerns on future progress as a slowing in investments will negatively impact the aids response.
It is estimated that nearly 2,8 million people are accessing treatment through financing provided by the Global Fund, more than half of the people on treatment today. However there are nearly 10 million people living with hiv who urgently need treatment. Five people are newly infected with hiv for every two people who start treatment.
Large scale investments in the aids response have produced encouraging results. At the MDG summit in New York two weeks ago, UNAIDS revealed new data showing that hiv infections have declined by more than 25 per cent in 22 countries most affected by aids in sub-Saharan Africa; and with nearly 5,2 million people on antiretroviral therapy, aids related deaths have fallen.
