The United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) has announced an extra $80 million contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, extending its commitment for Fund support until 2008. DFID is now committed to contributing $280 million in total to the Fund between now and 2008. The UK is the second largest donor to the Fund.
DFID has increased its funding of programmes to combat HIV/AIDS from about £60 million in 1998-99 to over £250 million per year in 2002-03. DFID is the second largest bilateral donor on HIV/AIDS after the United States.
The announcement comes just before G-8 heads of state are due to meet in Evian, France, where HIV will be one of the topics under discussion. Last week Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged to use his influence at the G-8 summit to ensure that HIV is given proper attention by the developed world, and earlier this week Bob Geldof used a trip to Ethiopia to attack European governments for a `pathetic` response to HIV in comparison to the United States.
According to a briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation published earlier this month, prior to this announcement total UK support for HIV/AIDS was already three times greater than that of the United States when assessed as a proportion of GDP (0.0234% vs 0.0079%) and more than five times the French commitment. Whilst campaigners have fcoused attention on the amount of money needed in the 2003 funding round, there has been less discussion of the need for stable, longer-term commitments that will allow countries to plan and generic manufacturers to reduce price based on predictable production patterns and guaranteed volumes.