The GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria “on Friday began an effort to raise as much as $24 billion from members of the Group of 20 nations that will test whether a major push begun a decade ago against infectious diseases can survive the global recession,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The two groups held meetings last week in The Hague with government representatives from existing and potential donor nations, according to the newspaper. 

“The two groups are important barometers of global health finances. While past funding has sustained GAVI and the Global Fund through the worst of the recession, the results of the new fundraising will indicate how deeply the recession’s full impact will be felt by the broader global health field,” the newspaper writes, adding that the joint meetings were “the first of a series of events where donor nations are expected to commit money to the two groups. Other events will include a G-8 summit in July and a meeting at the United Nations in New York in late September,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“GAVI, which distributes vaccines, said that through 2015 it needs an estimated $7 billion, of which it still needs to raise $4.3 billion. The Global Fund, meanwhile, outlined three possible scenarios for its 2011-2013 budget, which range from $13 billion to $20 billion, none of which has yet been raised,” according to the Wall Street Journal. In its FY 2011 budget request, the Obama administration has asked for the U.S. to contribute “about $1 billion for the Global Fund, roughly the same as the previous year, and $90 million for GAVI, which represents a slight increase,” the newspaper notes.

The article highlights the success of programs made possible by “a boom time for global health as economic growth in the past decade, boosted by new money and advocacy from donors such as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, helped reinvigorate the field,” and details the costs associated with carrying out HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis initiatives for another decade.

The piece also details information on the countries GAVI and the Global Fund are hoping to attract as donor nations, amid competing global demands such as investments aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change (Guth, 3/29).