The Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN) and its members, including STOPAIDS, welcome the Global Fund’s Investment Case summary released on 11 January in France by President Macron for its clear articulation that we are not yet on track to reach the targets of ending the three diseases by 2030 and that we must significantly step up our response to get back on track.
We are however concerned that the $14 bn funding target set for the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment will not be enough to achieve this vital task. This target is significantly lower than the need calculated in GFAN’s Get Back On Track Report published in July 2018 in which international civil society made a strong case for significant increases in funding to the Global Fund with a replenishment target of US$16.8 to 18 billion, based on the the technical partners’ global plans.
We remain concerned that with foreign exchange fluctuations and changes in pricing, $14 bn is barely more than a maintenance level ask. Additionally, we are concerned about the reliance on such a significant increase (48%) in domestic resource mobilization numbers when the Summary provides few clues as to whether that increase is realistic, achievable or desirable in how we fund the response to the 3 diseases.
We are keen to see the detail behind these summary numbers and look forward to the release of the full Investment Case, with its methodology and modelling, to better understand the assessment underlying this summary.
The $14 bn is critically needed to maintain current lifesaving programming, ensure people currently supported will not be left without treatment or protection, but without evidence, we believe it may not be sufficient to scale the response needed to get us back on track to meet our global targets.
With this replenishment, we feel the Global Fund is at a turning point in its history: will it actually be able to accelerate the end of these diseases or will it be limited to the vital, but ultimately more costly, task of fighting the ongoing battle to sustain the gains – saving and improving millions of lives every day, but not hastening the end of these epidemics.
As the investment case itself highlights, the most effective – and only – way to sustain the gains over the long term, in the face of resistance and other threats is to end these epidemics. We know how to accelerate the end of these diseases, we have the tools and science, but without significantly higher levels of global funding, including for the Global Fund, we simply are not going to get there by 2030.
The UK was the second largest donor to the Global Fund’s last replenishment in 2016, pledging an impressive £1.2 bn. We look forward to working with the UK to ensure it continues it leadership and ambitious support for the Global Fund. In a recent World AIDS Day statement, Penny Mordaunt articulated the UK’s continued commitment to the global HIV response and highlighted the need to accelerate efforts as we work to achieving the SDG target of ending AIDS by 2030:
‘…the end of AIDS is still not in sight. In 2017, nearly 1 million people died of AIDS, and one quarter of HIV positive people still do not know their status. We must continue to expand testing services, get more people on life-saving treatment, and address the structural issues that cause people to become infected.
That is why DFID remains one of the biggest donors to the HIV epidemic. Through our current £1.2 billion investment in the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, UK Aid is expanding access to life saving HIV treatment and supporting countries to respond to their own epidemics. In 2017 alone, UK Aid helped the global fund partnership to provide 17.5 million people with antiretroviral therapy…’
– Penny Mordaunt, Secretary of State for International Development