The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM) is taking a new approach to solicitations by pitching its case directly to financiers.
After having difficulty in recent years raising money, The New York Times reported that the charity's new general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, made a spirited pitch to finance ministers from participating nations. In a meeting in Tunisia, Jaramillo urged them to invest in GFATM now because "the out-years will be much cheaper as your number of cases goes down."
Jaramillo cited Nambia as an example of cost-efficiency. The African desert country spends $120 million a year on AIDS treatment, with half of that money coming from the Global Fund. These efforts helped Nambia free 9,200 hospital beds per year and saved the lives of 1,000 health workers and 550 teachers. In addition, the AIDS deaths in the country dropped from 2,700 to 56 over five years.
The Global Fund, founded in 2002, is almost entirely funded by the largest development nations and its taxpayers. Its largest private contributor is the Gates Foundation, which recently committed $750 million to GFATM. The global financial crisis had a huge impact on the organization, and the drop in financing has left it short of its goals. In May 2011, GFATM stated it was $1.3 billion short of its needs for 2011 through 2013. As a result, the organization has asked many of the countries it helps to make less ambitious plans and to cover more of its own costs.
You can read the full story in The New York Times.
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