LYON, France – Zimbabwe pledged US$1 million at the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference in Lyon, France, on Thursday as global health partners met to galvanise all sources of funding to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics, and to build resilient and sustainable systems for health.

In an unprecedented show of global solidarity, governments, philanthropists and private firms at the conference pledged US$14.02 billion for the next three years – the largest amount ever raised for a multilateral health organisation, and the largest amount by the Global Fund.

The funds will help save 16 million lives and end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030.

Host President Emmanuel Macron had exhorted countries to give as much as they can.

“These are not simply numbers, they are lives,” the French leader told delegates. “The funds that are being asked of us are not… charity. It is a decision to invest against injustice,” he added, highlighting the disproportionate rate of infection and deaths from the three diseases in poor countries and among women and girls.

Zimbabwe has contributed a total of US$1.46 million to the Global Fund to date. The country is both a donor to the Global Fund and an implementer of Global Fund-supported programmes.

“Since 2002, the Global Fund has approved nearly US$1,7 billion to Zimbabwe, of which over US$1,3 billion has been disbursed,” said Mnangagwa told the conference.

“Let me express my profound gratitude for this invaluable support. As we build strong institutions, infrastructure and integrated services, we appeal for support and seek partnerships to strengthen primary health care, build and retain a competent health workforce to achieve Universal Health Coverage.”

Mnangagwa said his government was “developing a robust National Health Insurance Scheme and stepping up innovative domestic funding initiatives such as the traditional AIDS Levy and the new Health Levy, to enable us to focus on the sustainability of our response.”

Over 710,000 people are now supported by Global Fund in Zimbabwe out of a total of 1,2 million people on Anti-Retro Viral Therapy.

Mnangagwa was criticised for taking a large delegation to the conference, including two ministers – Mthuli Ncube (finance) and Amon Murwira (acting foreign minister). He also flew in a US$30,000-per-hour private jet hired from Dubai.

The funding model of the Global Fund runs in three-year cycles that correspond with donor replenishment cycles. The upcoming funding cycle runs from 2020 through 2022, following the Lyron replenishment conference.

“We are targeting to halve by 2023 the annual death toll from these three epidemics and we are targeting to avert some 234 million infections,” said the fund’s Chief Executive Peter Sands.

Several delegates had expressed doubts that such a large sum could be generated as the focus switches away from diseases largely affecting poor countries, to other global problems.

“What we want to do is to make AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria disappear from the face of the earth,” Macron told delegates.

He complained that the resolve to fight the deadly trio has weakened in rich countries because fewer of their own are dying and treatment, particularly for HIV, is now readily available.

And he warned against “slackening”.

According to the UN’s World Health Organisation, 770,000 people died of HIV-related causes last year, with 1.7 million new infections.

Tuberculosis, a high risk for HIV-positive people, claimed some 1.7 million lives in 2017, and malaria more than 430,000.

The two-day meeting in Lyon was the sixth to replenish the fund since it was set up in 2002, with prominent supporters Microsoft founder Bill Gates and U2 lead singer Bono in attendance alongside a few African heads of state.

“Where you live should not decide whether you live,” the singer told delegates.

“For 14 million people with AIDS who can’t get the medication to save their lives, this is still an emergency.”

At the official close of the conference, Macron announced that the final tally of pledges came to $13.92 billion.

This was short of the target despite an additional $60 million made available by France in a bid to make up the shortfall, an amount Gates then matched.

Just minutes later, at a post-conference press briefing, Sands said Macron’s call for last-minute contributions had been heeded, and the tally had crept up to $14.02 billion.

NGOs insist that even more is needed — as much as $18 billion.

The United States is the number one donor with a $4.68 billion contribution already voted by Congress, and France’s total pledge amounts to $1.43 billion.

NGOs welcomed the conference outcome, with Aides boss Marc Dixneuf describing it as a “relief”.

“We consider it a success,” said Abdourahmane Diallo of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. “Besides the money, the conference has revealed solidarity” between nations.

Sands announced there had been increases in the pledges of all the G-7 bloc of rich countries, 20 donations from African governments, and 11 new donors from the private sector.

Donations from Africa had doubled from the last meeting.

The Global Fund groups states, NGOs and private firms to support public health programmes around the world, investing about $4 billion every year.

It says it has helped save 32 million lives and provided prevention, treatment and care services to hundreds of millions of people, while the yearly number of deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria has been slashed by 40 per cent since 2002 in countries where the Fund invests.

“What we want to do is to make AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria disappear from the face of the Earth,” said Macron.