Feature story

Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS issue report on funding for AIDS by G8 countries and other major donors

13 July 2009

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 The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have issued a new report on 2008 funding for global AIDS efforts from the Group of Eight nations, European Commission (EC) and other donor governments.

The latest annual report shows that overall commitments in AIDS funding from the developed world totalled US$ 8.7 billion in 2008, up from US$ 6.6 billion the previous year. Disbursements, which reflect actual resources made available in a given year and therefore provide a better measure of resource availability, rose even more rapidly, up 56 percent to reach US$ 7.7 billion in 2008.

Disbursements from the United States totaled US$ 4 billion in 2008, more than half of all disbursements and more than any other single country. The United Kingdom was the second largest donor, followed by the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Financing a sufficient and sustained response to the AIDS epidemic in low- and middle-income countries has emerged as one of the world’s greatest health and development challenges. International assistance from donor governments, through bilateral aid and contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as other financing channels, is a critical part of the response. Importantly, while the report provides the latest data available on donor funding, it reflects budgets largely set in place before the acceleration of the current global economic crisis, which may create new challenges to future funding.

  1. Between 2002 and 2008, commitments and disbursements from developed nations each increased by more than five-fold.
  2. In 2008, donor governments disbursed US$ 5.7 billion bilaterally and earmarked funds for HIV through multilateral organizations, as well as an additional US$ 1.7 billion to combat HIV through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and US$ 265 million to UNITAID.
  3. When HIV disbursements are measured as a share of each nation’s gross domestic product, the Netherlands ranks first, followed by the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States.

 

Download the full report Financing the response to AIDS in low- and middle- income countries: International assistance from the G8, European Commission and other donor Governments in 2008 (pdf).


The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible analysis and information on health issues.

UNAIDS is an innovative joint venture of the United Nations, bringing together the efforts and resources of the UNAIDS Secretariat and ten UN system organizations in the AIDS response. The Secretariat headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland—with staff on the ground in more than 80 countries. The Cosponsors include UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank. Contributing to achieving global commitments to universal access to comprehensive interventions for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support is the number one priority for UNAIDS.