At the World Economic Forum Bill Gates pledged
to donate $750 million dollars to the Geneva- based Global fund to Fight Aids,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Mr. Gates
stated that even though these are hard economic times there should be no excuse
for cutting aid to the worlds poor.
Since the fund was founded it has provided 230 million bed nets to
families to prevent malaria, antiretroviral treatment to 3.3 million people,
and treated 8.2 million people with tuberculosis. Mr. Gates donated such a large sum in order to
show his support to the troubled fund, and in hopes of bringing in more
donations. As of late the fund has been
accused of losing tens of millions of dollars due to corruption. Mr. Gates has firmly backed the public-private
fund stating, “It has changed the lives of many of the worlds poor through its
prevention and treatment programs in 150 countries”. Naoto Kan, the former prime minister of
Japan who donated $1.3 billion to the fund, claimed that even though the
European debt crisis has seriously affected the fortunes of the global fund it
does not make its significance any less.
The Global Fund claims to be working on becoming more transparent to
show that it is held accountable for its actions and they have nothing to
hide.
It is important that private corporations like Bill
Gates, continue to support and fund global health because the government alone
cannot solve global health epidemics. It
has been estimated that more than four million people die each year from either
AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis. Without
the help and support from these private-public funds developing countries would
have even fewer resources to help their poverty stricken citizens. Providing aid to countries, such as Africa,
creates an opportunity for its people to live a longer and healthier life. With a healthy population more effort can be
put forth by the people into creating a prosperous economy, better education,
and better living conditions. It is like
the old saying goes “health is wealth”.
On the other hand it seems that no big corporation, foundation,
government, or non-government organizations goes without corruption. With the Global fund being accused of losing
millions of dollars it is hard for people to trust that their money is actually
being used to benefit those in need.
Without this trust no one will want to donate money, especially in a struggling
economy, to the fund and the progress that has been made could potentially be
lost. It is vital that global health
funds are transparent with all of there actions so that health services can
continue to reach those in need.
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