G7 Summit: Europe Commits $618 million global fund to Fight Against Aids, TB, Malaria

The two-day, 45th Summit of the Group of Seven (G7) countries has ended in France.

It was attended by the core G7 Heads of State and/or Government of some of the world’s most-influential nation-states: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the US – named here strictly in alphabetical order, and on no other merit.

Invited participants included – but were not limited to – the EU Council President, Egypt, India, and Rwanda next-door…

Conspicuously absent were the world’s second biggest economy China, as well as the Russian Federation and Brazil, home to the world’s largest natural forests, described as the world’s lungs, routinely spewing out oxygen for humanity…

Among the topics for discussion at this year’s G7 Summit were climate change, global trade, the raging Amazon wildfires in Brazil – and more!

But, perhaps of greater interest – especially for developing countries like Tanzania – was the pledge during the G7 session by the EU Council President Donald Tusk committing the EU to finance the 6th replenishment of the Global Fund by a record euro550 million, roughly $618 million (Sh1.4 trillion).

The Global Fund is an international partnership designed to promote innovative solutions to global health challenges – even as it accelerates the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics by 2030…” Tanzania and other least-developed countries need this more than ever. As noted in The Citizen yesterday, Tanzania has been benefitting from the Fund since it was created in 2002. But the three epidemics continue to plague the country.

Surely, it’s possible to do away with HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, all of which are preventable, avoidable?

Let’s dialogue on this as a nation, together with our development partners and well-wishers, to establish where and why we are failing to eradicate the three maladies. Then we should start the fight afresh with increased vim, verve and vigour.

Source: The Citizen