Preparatory Meeting of the Sixth Global Fund Replenishment in Delhi is attended by international delegates
India is committed to increasing its health spend, health minister J P Nadda reiterated on Friday.
“I am happy to share that India has set an example globally by increasing its domestic financial allocations for health,” he said.
He was speaking at the Preparatory Meeting of the Sixth Global Fund Replenishment, here today.
The Global Fund is seeking to raise at least US$14 billion for the next three years to help save 16 million lives, cut the mortality rate from HIV, TB and malaria in half, and build stronger health systems by 2023.
Hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, the Preparatory Meeting of the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment has brought together governments, donors, technical partners and civil society groups in a demonstration of global solidarity to pursue Sustainable Development Goal 3, “health and well-being for all.”
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways and Coal, Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Health and Solidarity, Government of France, Ambassador Jean Claude Kugener, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to India, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Deputy Director General of Programmes, WHO, and Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund,and delegations and representatives from several countries were also present.
Nadda stated that India has been consistently exhibiting successes in the arena of health as an outcome of focussed policies, strategies and programmes. “We are now in a position, where we are talking of elimination of these diseases. In fact, our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji has fixed a target for us to end TB by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030,” Nadda elaborated.
The Minister said that the Global Fund has helped inscaling up ART treatment for people living with HIV (PLHIV), transition to viral load testing to monitor treatment outcomes, expand counselling and testing services, especially for the marginalized and key populations as well as move towards elimination of parent to child transmission of HIV. He also appreciated the support of Global Fund in providing Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLIN) to the endemic areas and implement other elimination strategies. “The impact of these interventions has been well demonstrated in the World Malaria Report 2018, where India has been the only high burden country to show a significant 24% decline in incidence,” Nadda added.
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways and Coal, stressed that India is committed to increasing its domestic financial resources against the three diseases of Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. “India is committed to improving the health of its people,” said Goyal.
