He opened an worldwide donor conference in Montreal on Friday in hopes of raising $13 billion to replenish the Global Fund for the fight against the three major infectious diseases.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on the world to donate money for the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Other leaders in attendance include the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, and global rock star Bono, along with the co-founder of Microsoft, billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates.
This year’s financial target is $13 billion.
Bono is also co-founder of the non-profit ONE that works to reduce poverty and disease in Africa, and will be a guest speaker at the forum.
Since 2005, the number of deaths from AIDS has dropped by one third with nine million people receiving anti-viral treatments, Faison said.
Already, several countries announced their contribution to the conference. The goal is to have collected US$13 billion in pledges by the end of the conference Saturday night. The United States will spend 4.3 billion USA dollars (about 5.7 billion U.S. dollars), while Germany plans to invest 800 million euros (about 1.2 billion).
The Fund´s managers are still waiting to hear from Britain. “For decades, these organizations have been committed to ending the HIV and AIDS epidemic and, together, they bring to the table the skills, knowledge, and experience to ensure people living with HIV have the care, treatment and dignity every person deserves”.
“Such disengagement from France would be incomprehensible and would have worrying consequences for global health”, said the signatories.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, hosts a luncheon at the Global Fund conference on September 16, 2016 in Montreal.
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Canadian Stephen Lewis, a former special United Nations envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, said “the perverse behaviour of the pharmaceutical companies” is keeping two drugs off the market that are desperately needed to fight a particular strain of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
