Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should urge fellow G-8 leaders to recommit to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as he hosts them in Muskoka, Canada on June 25-26, the Globe and Mail says in an editorial.
The Global Fund is requesting USD17 billion to USD20 billion to be able to continue financing malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis initiatives over the next three years. Donors will meet October 2010 to discuss the fund’s refinancing.
But recipients of Global Fund-backed projects cannot afford to wait until October, the Globe and Mail editorial argues.
As G-8 host, Harper “should set time aside to push his peers to re-commit to the Global Fund. The world’s most developed nations must live to their promises to the world’s neediest,” the editorial says.
It notes that most of the Global Fund’s top donors, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union, are attending the Muskoka G-8 summit.
Relating the Global Fund’s work to the summit’s expected focus on maternal and child health, the Globe and Mail argues that mothers and children stand to gain from fighting aids and malaria, which are among the leading causes of maternal and child mortality.
