Even as this year’s World Health Summit opened Sunday with a focus on reimagining the global health architecture, some health leaders emphasized the devastation caused by the dramatic aid cuts over the past months.
“We’re seeing that aid tumbling very fast and that suddenness is costing lives,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima during one session. “Aid needs to stay there to keep as a scaffolding, as a transition.”
Against that backdrop, the announcement by Germany’s minister for economic cooperation and development, Reem Alabali Radovan, that the country would commit €1 billion over the next three years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was met with relief.