UK government announces renewed investment in Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

This Saturday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the UK’s continuing support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, making an investment that will help save 2 million lives over the next three years.

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By making the announcement on the side-lines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, the Prime Minister has increased pressure on counterparts around the world to step up their own investments in line with the Global Fund replenishment case, increasing the likelihood of a successful sixth replenishment and the overall impact of the UK’s investment.

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The new pledge will average at £467 million a year, and will help:

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  • Provide antiretroviral therapy to more than 3.3 million people with HIV;

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  • Provide TB treatment and care for 2.3 million people;

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  • Provide 120,000 people with treatment for multidrug-resistant TB;

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  • Distribute 92 million mosquito nets to protect children and families from malaria; and

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  • Strengthen health systems and promote health security.

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The APPG on Global TB has spent several months actively campaigning for the UK to step up its investment in line with the Global Fund investment case, which demonstrates that unless donors ‘step up the fight’, the world will slip back and risk losing decades of hard-won progress in the fight against the three diseases. A £1.4 billion investment sees the UK increase its investment by approximately 16% and maintain its proportional contribution to a Global Fund budget of at least US$ 14 billion.

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As part of the investment, the UK has announced a £200 million private sector match fund for malaria as well as a revised performance agreement that will cover £100 million of the UK’s pledge.

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The UK joins Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg and others in pledging well in advance of the replenishment conference, which will be hosted by President Macron in France this October. Other major donors, including the USA, Germany, Canada and France have yet to make their pledges.

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At the UN High-Level Meeting on TB last year, world leaders committed to stepping up the fight against TB and diagnosing and treating at least 40 million people with TB by 2022. With the vast majority of all international financing and the UK’s only investment in global TB programmes being channelled through the Global Fund, a successful sixth replenishment will be essential to end TB by 2030.

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To read the government’s full press release, click here.