Funding the Global Fund: Passing the $10B mark and Beyond

Perhaps as a build up to the Global Fund's second replenishment process, which is in full swing in Oslo this week, there has been quite a buzz about new money for the Global Fund moving its assets to over 10 billion dollars. Two weeks ago, the Global Fund announced that with its newly pledged historic contribution of US$724 million for FY07, the United States contributions and commitments now total at US$3 billion, which constitutes 29% of all paid in contributions and firm pledges. Japan has also stepped up to the plate with a recent contribution:

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today enthusiastically welcomes Japan's announcement of a new contribution of US$186 million. This pushes Japan's contributions to the Global Fund to more than US$ 662 million since its creation in 2002, making it the organization's third-largest donor. "Japan has been a strong supporter of the Global Fund ever since leaders of G8 countries called for its creation at their meeting in Okinawa in 2000," said former Prime Minister of Japan and chair of the Board of Friends of the Fund Japan Yoshiro Mori. "Millions of people around the world, infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, depend on the resources of the Global Fund. Japan is taking its responsibility to help these people to heart."

Kudos to the US and Japan (and of course the UK) for their heartfelt contributions to the Global Fund, and for setting an example to other country governments to follow in their footsteps. With these public funding successes under its belt, the Global Fund isn’t sitting tight. Yesterday's news from Oslo to ramp up private contributions is a good sign that the Global Fund is committed to diversifying its funding portfolio, as it should be:

"We have a major effort under way to increase private financial contributions to the Global Fund and also private contributions of other kinds," the Fund's Executive Director Richard Feachem said at the start of a two-day donor meeting.

There are rumblings about efforts to raise private contributions to the Fund via Product (RED) being disappointing but the Global Fund deserves some credit for trying new fund raising strategies. I look forward to learning more about the major effort underway that Richard Feachem mentions, but more importantly, like many others I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Global Fund is able to use its most powerful leveraging tool to raise additional funding - its results. By results, I don't mean only how fast it is able to disburse money (one small measure of success for a donor), a measure that is often used to assess and often criticize the Global Fund’s performance, but rather about the impact this money has on the ground - stopping the epidemic and treating and caring for those already affected by it. It's has become more than clear that for the Global Fund to achieve this type of success it needs not only money, but functioning systems in a given country to spend this money. Who is going to support the Global Fund to do that?