PHA-Exchange> GLOBAL FUND ON AIDS, TB AND MALARIA RECEIVES $500 MILLION FROM GATES FOUNDATION

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
From: UNNews at un.org

GLOBAL FUND ON AIDS, TB AND MALARIA RECEIVES $500 MILLION FROM GATES 
FOUNDATION
New York, Aug  9 2006  5:00PM
The United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 
Malaria
<"http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/media_center/press/pr_060809.asp">announced 
today that it has
received a contribution of $500 million over five years from the Bill & 
Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We are extremely grateful to the Gates Foundation for this show of 
confidence in the Global Fund,”
said Richard Feachem, the fund’s Executive Director. “The 
<"http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/">Global
Fund has proven itself to be an effective way to reach millions of people 
with urgently-needed
medicines and other services. This new commitment by the Gates Foundation 
will enable us to reach
millions more.”

The announcement comes the week before more than 25,000 researchers, health 
workers, advocates, and
policymakers meet in Toronto to discuss progress and prospects in the fight 
against AIDS. Mr. Gates
said the Global Fund “has an excellent track record,” and called for efforts 
“to support its
continued success, which will save millions of lives.”

Since its launch four years ago, the Global Fund has financed international 
efforts to combat AIDS,
tuberculosis, and malaria. With grants from the Global Fund, 132 countries 
have begun to produce
substantial results, including 544,000 people provided with life-extending 
HIV/AIDS treatment, more
than 1.4 million people treated for TB, and more than 11 million bed nets 
distributed to protect
children from malaria.

“As we move from crisis management to a sustained AIDS response, we will 
continue to rely on the
Global Fund as the best model to provide strategic and predictable funding,” 
said Dr Peter Piot,
Executive Director of UNAIDS. “A fully-funded Global Fund is absolutely 
critical to the AIDS
response. Without it, it will be difficult to turn all of the good ideas and 
strategic plans into
reality on the ground.”

The Gates Foundation grant is structured so that $100 million will be 
provided each year from 2006
through 2010. The contributions for 2006 and 2007 will be available to 
support the Global Fund’s
sixth round of financing, which is slated to be approved by its board in 
November.

Today’s grant brings the Gates Foundation’s total support for the Global 
Fund to $650 million. The
foundation pledged $100 million in 2001 and an additional $50 million in 
2004.

Proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001, the Global Fund is a 
unique international
public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing funds to 
fight the three diseases
by strengthening health systems and paying for drugs, diagnostics, mosquito 
nets and other commodities.