Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Japan’s new financial commitment to the Global Fund, amounting to US$800 million. The announcement was made at the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in New York on September 22, 2010, in advance of the Global Fund’s replenishment meeting, where donor countries will announce their financial commitments to the fund for the coming three years.
Prime Minister Kan’s announcement came on the third day of the high-level summit, which was convened to examine the progress made so far toward meeting the MDGs and to boost global momentum toward achieving these international development targets by 2015. In his speech, Prime Minister Kan outlined Japan’s new global health policy, which includes battling the spread of communicable diseases as one of its three pillars.
Prime Minister Kan, who first became familiar with the challenge and human face of HIV/AIDS while serving as minister of health in the mid-1990s, praised the Global Fund for its work to fight disease around the world, remarking, “the Global Fund has been playing an outstanding role, and I would like to pay my sincere tribute to it.” He also spoke about being moved by a recent visit to the Tokyo photo exhibition of Access to Life, which the FGFJ organized in cooperation with the Global Fund and other partners. Access to Life documents the impact of antiretroviral treatment on the lives of people living with AIDS around the world.
This new commitment will bring Japan’s total contribution to over US$2 billion since the Global Fund was established in 2002 and represents a substantial increase since Japan’s last multi-year commitment made in 2008.
Related information:
Prime Minister Kan’s Speech to the UN MDG Summit (September 22, 2010)
Prime Minister Kan Opens Access to Life Photo Exhibit
