ISGlobal Applauds Spain’s Return to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

ISGlobal, together with Salud por Derecho, Doctors without Borders and Oxfam Intermón consider the announcement made by Pedro Sanchez at the United Nations General Assembly  – Spain returns to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with 100 million euros for the next three years – as excellent news, fulfilling the target set by the organisations when launching the campaign “España, súmate a la lucha” (Spain, join the fight).

Spain’s return as Global Fund donor after eight long years of absence has been been supported by all parlamentary groups for some time, as reflected by the Parliamentay approval of a proposal in 2016, which called for the Government to join back the Fund with a donation of 100 million euros. 

“Spain’s return to a fund with such a high impact as the Global Fund not only opens a new phase in development cooperation, but also makes our country regain its international responsibility in the fight against the three most lethal pandemics,” says Rafael Vilasanjuan, Director of Policy and Global Development at ISGlobal, from New York. “Spain will be present once again in forums with the capacity to define policies that can address these global health challenges and help save millions of lives,” he adds.   

Pedro Sánchez’s announcement occurs a few weeks before the Global Fund Replenishment Conference that will be held in Lyon on October 10. The Conference takes place at a moment where funding has stalled and the lack of  policies targeting the most vulnerable populations has led to an upsurge of the pandemics in many countries, threatening progress made and the UN’s commitment to end these pandemics by 2030, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Global Fund aims to collect at least 14,000 million USD for the 2020-2022 period, a sum that will help prevent over 230 million cases, save 16 million lives and reduce by half the mortality rate of these pandemics, in addition to strengthening health systems of the countries most affected by these diseases.