Germany is releasing €100 million ($133.59 million) for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the country’s international development minister announced Nov. 23, a day after the Global Fund’s board decided to cancel the organization’s next financing round due to insufficient resources.
The release of the funds fulfills Germany’s pledge to provide €200 million to the organization for 2011. The country released the first installment of the pledge, also worth €100 million, in August.
German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel’s announcement comes on the heels of the Global Fund board’s decision to cancel its next funding round and instead launch a transitional financing mechanism that will support ongoing grants through 2014.
“Substantial budget challenges in some donor countries, compounded by low interest rates have significantly affected the resources available for new grant funding,” the Global Fund said in a statement.
Several health aid groups and advocates have called on donors to fulfill their pledges to the Global Fund as well as commit to sufficiently finance the organization’s next funding round in 2014.
Health Global Access Project, a network of U.S.-based AIDS and human rights activists, people living with HIV/AIDS and public health experts, has noted that countries such as the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Denmark have yet to fulfill their pledges to the Global Fund.
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