The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria “expects to have an additional $1.6 billion to fund projects in 2012-2014, [the fund’s General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo] said on Wednesday, a turnaround from a funding freeze last year,” Reuters reports (Miles, 5/9). “The new funds are a result of ‘strategic decisions made by the Board, freeing up funds that can be invested in countries where there is the most pressing demand,’ a statement by the fund said,” according to PlusNews (5/10). “The money includes funds from new donors, from traditional donors who are advancing their payments or increasing contributions and from some donors, such as China, that have offered to support projects in their own country to free up cash for more pressing needs elsewhere, Jaramillo said,” Reuters notes (5/9). “This forecast is better than expected, and it comes from the fantastic response we are getting to our transformation,” Jaramillo said, adding, “But we need more to get the job done. Countries that implement our grants are saving more and more people, but demand for services is still enormous,” according to the statement (5/9).

Of the $1.6 billion, “$616 million will go to renewals of existing grants whose funds were set to expire and faced potential disruption of services,” the Wall Street Journal writes, noting the fund “will be consulting in the next few weeks with countries and partners on the best way to use” the remaining $1 billion, according to Jaramillo. The newspaper adds, “Another $500 million has been set aside in contingency money, in case of shortfalls in expected donations, potential exchange-rate losses and other unanticipated expenditures, according to a report to be delivered to the fund’s board at a meeting in Geneva on Thursday and Friday” (McKay, 5/9). “‘This ushers in a new era for the Global Fund, and I am pleased to see that it is opening the door to new partnerships,’ said Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS,” an agency press release states (5/9).