Canada should commit $1.2B to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria: advocates

The Global Fund has asked donor nations for US$18 billion in funding over the next three years, which is a nearly 30 per cent increase from the funds it asked for three years ago.

Advocacy groups working to end extreme poverty say they hope Canada will use an upcoming international AIDS conference in Montreal to commit new funding for a global organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

But the groups say they’re worried Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will fall short.

Elise Legault, Canada director at the ONE Campaign, an international non-governmental organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, said her group is calling for Trudeau to commit $1.2 billion to the fund during the AIDS 2022 conference, which begins July 29.

“With this investment, Canada would, alongside lots of other countries, help save another 20 million lives over the next few years, but we’re concerned that the prime minister might not be taking this opportunity,” she said in a recent interview.

Legault said the Global Fund, which provides financing to health departments and NGOs fighting the three diseases, has helped save an estimated 44 million lives over the past 20 years.

Canada is one of the fund’s largest supporters and has pledged more than $4 billion since 2002.

Chris Dendys, executive director of Results Canada, an Ottawa-based advocacy organization that works to end extreme poverty, said her group is also “pushing for this $1.2-billion contribution, which is what the Global Fund says is needed — the bare minimum needed.”

“What we’re hearing is that there’s been some sticker shock associated with that ask, which is unfortunate, given the opportunity for impact and the opportunity for Canada to really step up on a global stage where the world will be watching,” she said in an interview Thursday.