Washington D.C., June 20, 2019 - Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2740, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020, which includes increased funding for critical life-saving programs to end malaria around the world.
The approved legislation provides $1.56 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, $210 million above the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 enacted level. Critically, the bill also requires that the full $1.56 billion be provided to the Global Fund as the first installment of the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment. The legislation maintains the FY 2019 enacted funding levels for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), the U.S. government’s leading bilateral malaria program, at $755 million.
“We are grateful to the House of Representatives for continuing to fund and support these bipartisan, life-saving initiatives that are critical to ending malaria,” said Josh Blumenfeld, Managing Director for Global Policy and Advocacy, Malaria No More. “We are looking to the Senate to cement the United States’ leading role in protecting millions of young children and pregnant women around the world from the threat of malaria, HIV and TB and look forward to working with Congress to achieve the highest possible funding levels for the Global Fund and PMI to save millions more lives from preventable and treatable disease."
Since 2000, global efforts, led by U.S. leadership, investments, and innovation, have reduced malaria deaths by 60% and malaria cases by 37%, saving seven million lives and preventing more than one billion cases of the disease.
PMI’s recently released annual report to Congress highlighted that the program protected more than 570 million people at risk of malaria in FY 2018, 90 million more than in FY 2017. The Global Fund is the largest international funder for malaria prevention and control providing approximately 60% of total funding to eliminate the disease. A contribution of $1.56 billion from the United States would help leverage contributions from other countries to increase their spending and help meet the Global Fund’s goal of raising at least $14 billion, which is projected to save an additional 16 million lives from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
Together, investments in PMI and the Global Fund are among the most effective investments the U.S. is making and contribute to the U.S. government’s vision of ending preventable maternal and child deaths and extreme poverty around the world.
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For more information or interview requests, contact Michal Fishman at +1 504-220-2792 or Michal.Fishman@MalariaNoMore.org
About Malaria No More
Malaria No More envisions a world where no one dies from a mosquito bite. More than a decade into our mission, our work has contributed to historic progress toward this goal. Now, we’re mobilizing the political commitment, funding, and innovation required to achieve what would be one of the greatest humanitarian accomplishments – ending malaria within our generation. For more information, visit www.malarianomore.org
