Last week, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria hosted its Fifth Replenishment Conference where government and private sector partners pledged a total of $12.9 billion for 2017-2019. This replenishment was particularly noteworthy for its inaugural commitments – such as a $10 million pledge from the Government of Qatar – and pledges from African countries and companies. Kenya and South Africa pledged $5 million each. Nigeria pledged $10 million for 2017, and up to $30 million for 2017-2019.
The Global Fund Board Member representing the private sector, Paul Schaper (Merck Sharp & Dohme) made the final pledge of the conference, announcing a total of $250 million from private donors, companies and innovative financing initiatives. The private sector pledge to the Fifth Replenishment doubled the amount of private sector contributions during the previous period. Schaper expressed his commitment to the Fund’s mission during an on-site interview with GBCHealth:
“Increasing the health of the societies in which we do business is good for business — it strengthens economies and creates a healthy population of both employees and consumers. And the ultimate value that business brings to its workers and its customers is improved lives. Health is an integral part of that; business needs to be engaged in creating healthier communities.”
Schaper also indicated that the engagement of the private sector will be critical in ensuring the successful implementation of the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 Strategy:
“We need private sector engagement in each of the four pillars that the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 strategy is built on, if we are to succeed in a fundamental way in countries. To build sustainable health systems, we need to leverage the knowledge and capacity of private sector in countries. To mobilize increased resources, we need to think of new ways to bring in the resources of the private sector both to the work of the Fund and to providing health services in countries more generally in a truly sustainable way. Private sector know-how will be critical to increasing the efficiency of our service delivery, including financial management and IT systems and supply chain. This will be crucial if we are to reach more people with prevention services in a world of constrained resources.
Finally, the private sector can be an engine for increasing human rights and advocating for and implementing inclusive human resource and non-discrimination practices.”
Outside of the formal pledging event, the Private Sector Constituency to the Global Fund Board hosted two high-level events. On 16 September, the constituency welcomed representatives from Ecobank, Coca-Cola, Goodbye Malaria, and Fullerton Foundation International to share the diverse ways in which their companies are working with the Fund to ensure the provision of HIV, TB, and malaria prevention and care services to people all over the world. Patrik Silborn, Director of the Global Fund’s Private Sector Engagement and Innovative Finance team, also spoke about the importance of private sector engagement to the overall mission of the Fund.
On 17 September, the Private Sector Constituency hosted an informal networking breakfast. Paul Schaper and Patrik Silborn made opening remarks at the event, and then invited Greg Davis, CFO of Standard Bank, to comment on the Bank’s pledge to support the Fund in ending the epidemics.
A full list of pledges to-date is available below.
Pledges to the Fifth Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
(The Secretariat will publish a complete list of pledges in the coming days.)
| Country/Donor Group |
XX |
Pledge ($ = USD) |
|
Benin |
$2 million |
|
|
Cote d’Ivoire |
$1 million |
|
|
Kenya |
$5 million |
|
|
Namibia |
$1 million |
|
|
Togo |
$1 million |
|
|
Canada |
$600 million |
|
|
United States |
$4.3 billion |
|
|
Qatar |
$10 million |
|
|
Germany |
US$901 million (€800 million) |
|
|
Comic Relief |
$12.75 million |
|
|
Fullerton Health Foundation International |
$7.5 million |
|
|
(RED) |
$100 million |
|
|
United Methodist Church |
$8 million |
|
|
Private Sector (Total) |
$250 million |
|
|
Japan |
$800 million |
|
|
European Commission |
~$535 million (€475 million) |
|
|
France |
~$1.2 billion (€1.08 billion) |
|
|
United Kingdom |
~$1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) |
|
|
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
$600 million |
|
|
Sweden |
~$291 million (kr2.5 billion) |
|
|
Norway |
~$241 million (kr2.0 billion) |
|
|
Australia |
~$167 million ($A220 million) |
|
|
Italy |
$130 million |
|
|
New Zealand |
$1 million |
|
|
Luxembourg |
$8.1 million |
|
|
Duet Group |
At least $5 million |