History, mandate and targets:
The Global Fund for Combating AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a public-private partnership initiative involving all G7 countries, the European Commission and various non-G7 countries, international bodies, NGOs from developing countries and developed countries, representatives of at-risk populations, private foundations and the private sector.
The idea of creating the Fund came out during the G8 Summit in Okinawa and became operational during the subsequent Genoa Summit in July 2001. The organization was officially established in Geneva in January 2002. Characteristic of the Global Fund is the governance mechanism, which includes, in addition to donor countries and private entities, also representatives of beneficiary countries as well as civil society, such as NGOs and Associations NGOs and associations representing communities affected by diseases.
The Global Fund is essentially a financial mechanism that deals with finding and investing funds in order to support projects that fight against pandemics in countries that apply for it.
The first donors’ meeting to acquire financial resources for the Global Fund was held in Rome in 2005 under the guide of the Italian Government. Italy is one of the main donors of the Global Fund, with approximately USD 1.1 billion paid to the Global Fund since the beginning (2002) of its activities, Italy is the eighth donor country after United States, France, UK, Germany, Japan, European Commission and Canada. Many Italian civil society organisations also support the work of the Global Fund with sponsorship activities, including the Italian Observatory on Global Action Against AIDS, Action for Global Health (represented in Italy by actionaid and AIDOS).
Italy plays an active role in the governing body, within the constituency led by the European Commission which also includes Spain, Belgium and Portugal, and in the Board of Directors of the Global Fund. For 2017-2019, Italy is contributing with EUR 140 million.
On the occasion of the last Fund Replenishment Conference held in Lyon on October 2019, Italy confirmed its commitment to step up its financial engagement to EUR 161 million for the next financial cycle.
Executive Director: The Executive Director is Peter Sands in office since November 2017.
Website: www.theglobalfund.org