Ahead of its Seventh Replenishment Conference, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has received commitments of $6 billion from the United States, the Associated Press reports, as well as multimillion-dollar pledges from various foundations.

The Global Fund aims to raise $18 billion to protect gains against infectious diseases in the face of COVID-19 and finance ongoing projects through 2025. As part of that effort, the Rockefeller Foundation pledged $15 million, doubling the commitment it made in 2019 for the period that ends in 2025. This year, the pledge will help finance the Global Fund’s Data Science Catalytic Fund, a project to fortify community health information systems and streamline healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) using digital tools, as well as the Laboratory Systems Strengthening Catalytic Fund, a mechanism for accelerating the development of public health laboratories across low- and middle-income countries. In addition, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has announced a $10 million pledge.

The Global Fund’s goal of raising $18 billion would help save 20 million lives and avert more than 450 million new infections of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. 

“Yes, there are many other demands, and governments are facing lots of domestic political pressures around the cost of living, energy, and all this kind of stuff,” Global Fund executive director Peter Sands told the AP. “But I think there’s also recognition that however tough things might be in some of the rich countries in the world, the way these things are translating in poorer, marginalized communities is a matter of life and death.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/mixetto)