The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. As a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases, the Global Fund mobilizes and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs in more than 100 countries.
The Global Fund released its Results Report 2016, which showed its programs have saved 20 million lives. The report, with cumulative results from 2002 to the end of 2015, also showed there have been one-third fewer deaths from AIDS, TB and malaria in the countries where the Global Fund invests. The partnership is on track to reach 22 million lives saved by the end of 2016.
These achievements are a result of Global Fund investments in programs designed and implemented by local experts across the world. The investments provided 9.2 million people with antiretroviral therapy for HIV, 15.1 million people with testing and treatment for TB, and 659 million mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Consequently, the programs have averted 146 million new infections from the three diseases since 2012.
To raise funds to continue its work, the Global Fund organizes a Replenishment Conference every three years. In this year’s Replenishment Conference hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in Montreal on 16-17 September, the Global Fund secured pledges of more than $12.9 billion from partners across the world. The amount raised will save 8 million lives, avert 300 million infections, and help build resilient and sustainable systems for health.
In 2009 the documentary photographer John Rae was commissioned by the Global Fund to report on Malaria in Tajikistan. Here, the Shomrodov family are having evening tea in their garden while sitting under their insecticide-treated net. Malaria was eliminated in the country in the 1980s, but it reappeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since 2000, cooperation between international partners, including the Global Fund, has led to a steady decline in the number of malaria cases. Today, Tajikistan is once again close to eliminating malaria.
