Global Fund head repeats appeal for emerging countries to invest more in fight against AIDS, TB, malaria

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Director Michel Kazatchkine on Thursday repeated his appeal for emerging countries to scale up their contributions to fight the three major diseases, Agence France-Presse reports.

"As we moved from G8 to G20 in global governance shouldn't emerging countries also participate in global solidarity?" Kazatchkine asked, noting that G8 countries currently contribute 85 percent of the donations to the Global Fund, according to the news service. "While acknowledging that 'China, Brazil and India should remain net beneficiaries the Global Fund,' Kazatchkine said that 'at the same time, they have to be contributors,'" the AFP writes.

Kazatchkine has been meeting with representatives from emerging countries, such as Brazil, China and India to discuss the prospects their help in closing the funds' funding gap (9/16).

Kazatchkine's efforts come ahead of the Global Fund "replenishment conference" next month, where the group will decide on its financing for its programs over the next three years, VOA News reports, in an article that examines the impact the fund has had since its creation in 2000, as described by Kazatchkine (Schlein, 9/16).

"Overall, the fund needs 17 billion dollars (12.9 billion euros) in the next three years in order to meet U.N. targets on cutting the occurrences of these diseases," the AFP adds (9/16).