Project Syndicate: Fully Filling the Global Fund
Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor at Columbia University and director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN); Guido Schmidt-Traub, executive director of the U.N. SDSN; and Vanessa Fajans-Turner, director of SDG Costing and Financing for the U.N. SDSN

“The single most important public health measure of 2019 is the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. … [T]he Global Fund budget leveled off following the 2008 financial crisis, and a gap opened between what is needed and what is funded. That gap needs to be closed in October 2019, when the Global Fund is to be replenished for the years 2020-22 at a conference in Lyon hosted by the French government. … [T]he entire shortfall must be covered. … Here, then, is a basic proposal: The Global Fund should pledge its efforts to raise $30 billion for the next three years. Half of the $30 billion could come from donor governments. The U.S. should continue its tradition of bipartisan support. China, a past Global Fund beneficiary, should now become a donor. The other half of the funding should come from the world’s richest people, whose wealth has soared in recent years. … In a world divided by conflict and greed, the Global Fund’s fight against the three epidemic diseases is a matter of enlightened self-interest. It is also a reminder of how much humanity can accomplish when we cooperate to save lives” (1/10).