Foreign news
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $912 million over the next three years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, calling on governments and partners to make bold decisions that could save millions of lives.
Bill Gates, Chairman of the Foundation, made the announcement at the 2025 Goalkeepers event on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He described the Global Fund as “one of the most effective lifesaving initiatives,” noting that it has saved more than 70 million lives since its creation in 2002 and reduced deaths from AIDS, TB, and malaria by over 60 percent.
According to Gates, every dollar invested in the Global Fund generates an estimated $19 in health and economic returns. The new pledge raises the Foundation’s total contribution to $4.9 billion since 2002, making it one of its largest long-term investments.
The commitment is expected to galvanize governments, philanthropists, and the private sector toward the Fund’s Eighth Replenishment, co-hosted by South Africa and the United Kingdom, which concludes in November.
“With millions of lives on the line, the level of investment in the Global Fund over the next three years will determine whether the world saves lives, curbs HIV, TB, and malaria, and strengthens global health security,” Gates said. “An entire generation is alive today thanks to the world’s generosity, smart investments, and the hard work of governments and partners. Now, we must go further so the next generation grows up in a world where no child dies from preventable causes.”
The Goalkeepers event, attended by over 1,000 leaders from government, philanthropy, and the private sector, focused on rekindling global commitment to child survival. Gates urged leaders to seize the opportunity to make the deadliest childhood diseases history by 2045, warning that donor countries’ recent cuts in health aid could erase decades of progress.
Citing the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Gates said global development assistance for health dropped by 21 percent between 2024 and 2025, reaching a 15-year low. He cautioned that such cuts could reverse progress that has halved child mortality since 2000, from 10 million to fewer than five million annual deaths.
Despite shrinking budgets, Gates emphasized that the roadmap for progress is clear: sustained investments, innovative health solutions, and stronger primary healthcare systems. Joint findings by the Gates Foundation and IHME suggest that continued investments could halve child deaths again over the next two decades.
The roadmap calls for renewed support for proven initiatives such as the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to expand vaccine access, improve healthcare delivery, and enable countries to transition to self-reliance.
It also highlights the importance of breakthrough innovations,including new malaria-prevention tools, single-dose malaria treatments, long-acting HIV drugs, maternal vaccines against RSV and group B streptococcus, and the use of artificial intelligence to speed up medicine delivery.
“We have a roadmap for saving millions of children and ending preventable deaths. The choices leaders make today will shape whether humanity seizes this once-in-a-generation chance to build a healthier, more equitable future,”Gates said.
NAN.
