Celebrating private sector partners’ transformative impact on the fight against HIV, TB and malaria 

Last week, the Global Fund’s Peter Sands and All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) on HIV, AIDS and Sexual Health’s Michael Payne MP brought together many APPG groups and partners, ahead of the Global Fund’s Eight Replenishment campaign, to spotlight the breadth of the Global Fund partnership, with a particular emphasis on UK-based stakeholders and champions,  as well as to engage new and long-standing parliamentary advocates for the Global Fund’s efforts to defeat HIV, TB and malaria. 

The reception was an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the transformative contributions of the organization’s private sector partners. It also celebrated the UK and South Africa as co-hosts of the Global Fund’s Eighth Replenishment campaign. 

The event hosted multiple speakers, including Madame Dineo Mathlako, Deputy High Commissioner, South African High Commission; and Sherwin Charles, co-founder and CEO of Goodbye Malaria.

As Head of Global Stakeholder Engagement for Target Malaria and a Tanzanian native, I was invited to highlight the burden of malaria in Africa: the African Region  accounted for an estimated 94% of global cases and 95% of malaria-related deaths in 2023.   

The Global Fund was an incredible innovation when it was created in 2002 as a public-private partnership to defeat these three interlinked diseases. It is leading the charge in ensuring that countries and their National Malaria Control Programmes can access existing life-saving tools. Thanks to the Global Fund’s investments, remarkable progress has been made, against HIV with saving 65 million lives saved and the combined death rate reduced by 63%.   

The strongest message from the reception was that partnership is key, and private and public sectors working together is necessary to ensure inclusive and sustainable solutions in the fight against malaria, HIV and TB.   

Following the event, the Global Fund announced the first pledge for the replenishment campaign, coming from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), with a groundbreaking US$150 million commitment. This represents a five-fold increase from its previous contribution. This historic pledge sets a powerful precedent for private sector leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.