Post date: Jan 24, 2013 11:33:9 PM
The Global Fund hails Germany's decision to make a one billion euro contribution to the organisation fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide.
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND (JANUARY 24, 2013) (REUTERS) - Germany will donate one billion euros over a five-year period to the Global Fund, its development minister said in Davos on Thursday (January 23), making Berlin the third largest contributor to the organisation fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
"As Germany has its own seat on the board, we are better able to ensure that our contributions are properly channelled," Development Minister Dirk Niebel said at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in this Swiss ski resort.The Fund, which raises money from donors every three years, commissioned a review of its procedures in March 2011 after reporting "grave misuse of funds" in four recipient nations.
This had prompted donors such as Germany and Sweden to freeze their donations.
The Global Fund's new executive director Mark Dybul, a medical doctor from the United States called the donation "a wonderful announcement, a great demonstration that even in tight resources, people see the Global Fund and the work that is being done through that partnership as a good investment ."
Dybul described the Global Fund as "a partnership organisation that allows everyone in the world to come together to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, saying the cooperation "is changing the world. It's taxpayers from the north, it's people in the countries themselves taking up the responsibility from heads of state to people in the clinics to fight the disease, it's all of us, the private sector, it's all of us coming together in shared responsibility to fight three of the biggest pandemics of history."
The Global Fund, based in Geneva, accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria.