Japan hosted the Fifth Replenishment Preparatory Meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) on 16 and 17 December, which laid the groundwork for a pledging conference in mid-2016 at which donors will finalize the Global Fund’s next three-year funding cycle.
The participants included Japan’s Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida, health ministers from several countries, Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS.
”We have an unprecedented opportunity in the next five years to break the AIDS epidemic,” said Mr Loures. “If we scale up care, treatment and prevention services and create an environment where people have full access to them we will be on course to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”
On the eve of the meeting, Japan also organized a conference on universal health coverage in order to evaluate the financial systems and funding required by countries to promote access to affordable health care and medicine. Universal health coverage is key to ending the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which are fuelled by poverty, stigma and discrimination.
Japan has been one of the leading investors in the AIDS response, supporting programmes focused on key populations across Asia and investing in projects such as the Kenya HIV Situation Room, which is using cutting-edge technology to provide high-quality data about that country’s epidemic.
While he was in Japan, Mr Loures also visited PLACE Tokyo, which provides community-based services related to HIV and sexual health, including consultation services for people living with HIV.
“The role of communities remains as critical as ever in addressing the realities, needs and challenges of people living with HIV in Japan,” said Mr Loures. “I congratulate PLACE Tokyo for the work they are doing to support people living with HIV, their partners and family members.”
