Petition to Fully Fund the Global Fund Seeks 500,000 Signatures

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

ABSTRACT Organisers of an online petition seeking full funding for the Global Fund are hoping to obtain 500,000 signatures by 30 September 2010, and are planning to submit the petition to world leaders at the Global Fund's replenishment meeting in New York on 4-5 October 2010.

An online petition campaign has been organised in support of an effort to “fully finance” the Global Fund. The campaign is aiming to get 500,000 signatures by 30 September 2010. Organisers plan to submit the petition to world leaders at the Global Fund’s replenishment meeting in New York on 4-5 October 2010.

The campaign is being organised by the Communities Delegation on the Global Fund Board, with assistance from other concerned organisations. Individuals interested in signing the petition can find it at www.globalfundreplenishment.org. The petition is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

The petition says that the replenishment “must raise at least $20 billion if the extraordinary gains made by the Global Fund over the past decade are to be sustained and accelerated…. If adequately resourced, the Global Fund can eliminate malaria in endemic areas, prevent millions of new HIV infections, virtually eliminate the transmission of HIV from a mother to her child, and achieve significant declines in TB prevalence and mortality by 2015.”

The petition also says that some international donors have “pre-empted” the outcome of the replenishment meeting by “calling for caps on the amount of funding to be made available for each round. This would be a disastrous consequence….”