The Gates Foundation (chaired by Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda), will donate $500 million (R3.4 billion), to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next five years, reports government information portal BuaNews.
"The Global Fund is one of the most important health initiatives in the world today," said Bill Gates. "The fund has an excellent track record, and we need to do everything we can to support its continued success - which will save millions of lives."
The announcement on Wednesday comes a week before the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto - a biennial gathering to assess the status of the pandemic and stake out global priorities. More than 25 000 researchers, health workers, advocates and policymakers are expected to converge on the city.
Conference co-chairman Mark Wainberg applauded the Global Fund and the Gates Foundation for taking to heart the challenge of the conference theme, "Time to deliver".
Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund, said: "We are extremely grateful to the Gates Foundation for this show of confidence in the Global Fund."
This latest grant by the Gates Foundation brings the organisation`s total support for the Global Fund to $650 million.
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