The EU announced has announced a 550 million euro contribution to the Global Fund, an international initiative launched in 2002 with the aim of eradicating these three epidemics by 2030.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, made the commitment at a press conference at the G7 summit taking place in Biarritz, France.
With this new funding, the EU contribution will reach 2,600 million euros for a fund that, in 2017 alone, provided treatment for HIV for 17.5 million people, distributed 197 million mosquito nets against malaria and treated five million people with tuberculosis, according to the European Commission.
“We hope that the international community will do the same and will increase the fight to fulfill the objective of the Fund,” Tusk said.
The goal is to mobilise 12.6 billion euros between 2020 and 2022, for which a donor conference will be held in Lyon in October.
The EU also announced that it will join the “Affirmative Financial Action for Women in Africa”, an initiative of the African Development Bank “with a contribution of some 85 million euros that “will help develop 100,000 businesses run by women.”
Finally, the EU will make an initial contribution of one million euros to the fund created by the 2018 Nobel Peace Prizes winners, Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege, to compensate victims of sexual violence during in conflicts.
The Iraqi activist and the Congolese doctor will present their initiative this Sunday at the G7 summit.
From August 24 to August 26, talks between world leaders in the glamorous coastal resort town in the south west of France will address the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, the Iran nuclear deal and the civil unrest in Hong Kong.
It also marks the first major international engagement of Boris Johnson since he became UK prime minister in July.
