WATCH ABOVE: Minister Paradis talks Canada’s support for Global Fund to combat AIDS
TORONTO – Canada is increasing its aid to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing nations.
Christian Paradis, the Minister for International Development, said the country’s new commitment of $650 million—an increase of over 20 per cent from 2010—aims to improve the health of those living in poverty around the world, especially women and girls.
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“Maternal, newborn and child health is the flagship priority for Canada’s international engagement and the Global Fund is one of our key partners,” said Paradis in an announcement Monday. “A window of opportunity now exists to reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, to a point where they are no longer public health threats in developing countries. Canada is seizing that opportunity: we are safeguarding the substantial achievements already made and helping find new and innovative ways to prevent, care and treat these diseases.”
Created in 2002, the Global Fund was created to dramatically increase resources to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The organization invests in “large-scale prevention, treatment, and care programs, and supports national health systems and health workers in the world’s poorest regions.”
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Canada’s latest contribution to the Global Fund is a component of the $2.85-billion Muskoka Initiative that was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the G8 Summit in June 2010.
The initiative was created to reduce maternal and infant mortality and improve the health of mothers and children in the world’s poorest countries by focusing on three key paths: strengthening health systems, preventing and treating the leading illnesses and diseases that kill women and children, and improving nutrition.
In September 2013, Harper told a United Nations panel on maternal and child health that the “world needs more than just rhetoric when it comes to improving the lives of mothers and newborn children.”
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