Spain’s announcement that it will resume vital foreign aid contributions is an act of political leadership and real solidarity with the world’s poor, Bill Gates said today.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, announced yesterday [Feb 22] that his country would re-institute contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that were suspended last year and continue to fund life-saving immunization programmes through the GAVI Alliance. He also said Spain would resume its support for poor farmers via the Global Agriculture & Food Security Program, also suspended due to the recession.
“Spain has been one of the world’s most generous countries to the world’s poor, and these new announcements of increased funding do it great credit,” said Gates. “While Spain is going through difficult times itself, it has shown that it’s still possible to keep promises to those living in extreme poverty.”
During his visit to Spain, Gates had an opportunity to meet with Minister Garcia-Margallo, as well as with Prime Minister Rajoy. Gates commented that he was encouraged during the meeting with the Prime Minister by his stated commitment to do all that he could to protect Spain’s aid budget, despite the difficult economic circumstances.
Innovative partnerships supported by Spain have helped save millions of lives. Spain has given more than €41 million to the GAVI Alliance, supporting the immunization of 326 million children and preventing over five million future deaths. Spain was also an early supporter of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (The Global Fund), contributing approximately €530 million. The Global Fund has provided antiretroviral treatment to 3.3 million people living with HIV and detected and treated 8.2 million people with tuberculosis.