ONE welcomes Health Ministers’ declaration of support for Global Fund

Paris, 17 May 2019. At the G7 health ministerial in Paris, G7 health ministers agreed to commit to support the success of the Sixth Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Health ministers also set out their desire to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the Global Fund’s programs.

Friederike Röder, ONE’s EU and France Director, says:

“It’s encouraging that G7 health ministers set out their support for global efforts to defeat AIDS, TB and malaria during their meeting in Paris. Collectively, these three diseases represent one of the greatest health challenges facing the world. Despite important advances there are worrying signs that progress is stalling. HIV remains the biggest killer of young women around the world, whilst malaria continues to take the life of a child every two minutes.

“World leaders have an historic opportunity to defeat these diseases, which together have taken more lives than all the wars in history. But this will only happen if they deliver real progress and not just promises. In practice this means the World’s richest nations must commit to investing in the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and malaria at its replenishment summit here in France later this year. This investment will enable the fund to accelerate the fight against these diseases and save an additional 16 million lives.

“Health ministers were right to make this a key focus of their discussions this week and we welcome their commitment to support the success of the Global Fund replenishment. But if they are serious about addressing major global health challenges such as AIDS, TB and malaria, they must now take this message back to their governments. It is vital G7 countries continue to be at the forefront of the fight against these diseases.”

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Notes to editors:

• For its next replenishment conference in Lyon, France, on 10 October, the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria is seeking $14 billion to continue its life-saving work for the next three years. ONE is running a global campaign to secure this sum over the next 5 months.
• As the summit drew to a close, activists from The ONE Campaign gathered in Paris to draw the attention of health ministers to the impact of HIV, TB and malaria. This follows a report released by ONE earlier this week, which highlights 10 ways in which the diseases should still be demanding the attention of world leaders. You can find ONE’s full report  “Diseases are winning – but we are focussed elsewhere” here: http://bit.ly/2Hgo26X