Funds raised for RESULTS!

THREE Sydney schoolgirls raised $320 for RESULTS from a cake stall in their local community during the school holidays. 

 A huge THANK-YOU goes out to Ella, Edita and Sienna for their awesome work! 

The Global Fund: Back in Business

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will be ready to begin funding new grants in September 2012. 

This good news is a far cry from where the Global Fund found itself just over six months ago, when due to lower than expected donor contributions, it announced that no new grants would be approved until 2014.

The decision was taken by the Global Fund Board at its meeting in Geneva on May 10-11, 2012.

The Board said that its decision was made possible by a "new and encouraging financial forecast," which estimated that approximately $1 billion would be available to fund new grants in the period 2012-2014.

This $1 billion is on top of the $615 million that was made available in March 2012, to carry essential programs through the period of uncertainty that was facing the Global Fund.

The positive forecast is a result of strategic Board decisions and transformations currently underway which have significantly improved the Funds financial supervision and overall efficiency.

The better than expected financial position has been made possible by money from new donors like Namibia, a hike in contributions from existing donors such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, and the cutting of support for programs in some emerging economies such as China and Brazil.

Whilst the Board is pleased that work can begin so much sooner than what was originally thought, it is concerned that current pledges remain insufficient to sustain current efforts and continue making the great gains in global health for which the Global Fund has become well known.

RESULTS, along with other Australian aid advocacy groups such as MSF, World Vision, the Global Poverty Project and Oxfam, will be calling on the Government to make an additional $100 million commitment to the Global Fund this year, as a vote of confidence in its life-saving work.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has offered to host a dinner during the UN General Assembly session in September 2012 in support of health-related development goals, with a special focus on the Global Fund. 

The dinner should provide an opportunity for heads of state and government, and also for business leaders, to recommit themselves to the Global Fund as a key instrument for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and, for some, to also announce new financial commitments.