24 Sep 2019
G7 countries’ contributions to Global Fund have grown steadily since Fund’s inception

As the Global Fund approaches the replenishment of funds for the next implementation period, 2020 to 2022, some of its traditional major donors have already announced their pledges. The G7 countries – the world’s most advanced economies in the world including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States - are the Global Fund’s largest donors, and their contributions account for approximately 79% of all the funds raised by the Global Fund since its inception.

So far, five of the seven G7 countries: Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK), all have announced their pledges which have increased by about 15% relative to the last replenishment. (The US is expected to announce its pledge formally in Lyon, but on 19 September the Senate posted its bill approving a 15.6% increase in its contribution to the Global Fund.) The increments demonstrate the continued commitment and leadership by these countries in global health and particularly in the fight against the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

This article focuses on the G7 countries’ contributions to the Global Fund, highlighting the trends in the contributions of this group of countries since 2001. Data used for this analysis comes from the Global Fund website.

G7 governments are primary contributors to Global Fund

The Global Fund has raised more than $46 billion since its inception in 2001, according to the most recent data available on the Global Fund website. Governments of the seven G7 countries have collectively paid more than $36 billion to the Global Fund thus far, which represents 79% of the total Global Fund investments. This paid amount is likely to go up to $40 billion by the end of the 2017-2019 replenishment cycle as the countries continue to fulfil their pledges. The Global Fund raises funds following a three-year cycle. Donors often fulfil their pledges on an annual basis. Between 2001 and 2016, the G7 countries fulfilled 97% of their pledges.

During this current grant allocation cycle, from 2017-2019, the G7 countries have collectively fulfilled 62% of their commitments so far (Table 1). Considering the experience from past replenishment cycles, and the fact that this cycle has about three months to go, it is safe to assume that the G7 countries will fulfil most of their pledges.


Table 1: Total pledges and contributions by the G7 countries for the 2017-2019 replenishment cycle
Country Amount pledged
(in US$ million)
Amount contributed
(in US$ million)
Proportion of pledge fulfilled (%)
Canada 616 415 67%
France 1,212 838 69%
Germany 943 668 71%
Italy 157 149 95%
Japan 800 793 99%
United Kingdom 1,569 1,085 69%
United States 4,300 2,018 47%
Total 9,597 5,966 62%

Source: Global Fund website

The contributions of the G7 countries are significant to the Global Fund. Donor governments are its primary source of funding, accounting for 93% of the Fund's total funding. These donor governments include not only the G7 countries, which do not benefit from Global Fund grants, but also other Global Fund recipient countries such as China, India, Kenya and Nigeria. The remaining 7% comes from private sector and nongovernment sources including corporations, private foundations, faith-based organizations, and innovative financing mechanisms such as Debt2Health.

The G7 contributions have increased steadily over successive replenishment cycles, rising from $3.5 billion in the 2001-2005 period to more than $9 billion in the last (Fifth) Replenishment for 2017-2019 (Figure 1). In terms of proportion, the G7 contribution increased from 74% in the 2001-2005 to 85% in the 2017-2019 replenishment cycle.

Figure 1: Total contributions by G7 countries and all sources by replenishment cycle

Note: For the 2017-2019 replenishment cycles, the analysis uses pledges instead of actual contributions because the donor governments are yet to disburse all their monies to the Global Fund. The analysis assumes that the G7 countries will fulfil at least 97% of all of their pledges, as they have in the past.

US and France are most significant contributors to the Global Fund

The United States has been the largest donor to the Global Fund, and has contributed $15 billion so far (Table 2). This $15 billion accounts for 33% of all contributions to the Global Fund, in line with US law that stipulates that the country can contribute at most 33% of the total funding raised in each replenishment cycle. France is the Global Fund’s second-largest donor and accounts for 13% ($6 billion) of the total Global Fund contributions thus far, followed by the United Kingdom ($4.5 billion, 10%). However, in the last replenishment cycle, the United Kingdom surpassed France in pledges to the Global Fund for the first time.

Among the G7 countries, Italy has contributed the least: $1.3 billion, which accounts for 3% of the total contributions.



Table 2: Contributions to the Global Fund by G7 countries for all replenishment cycles
Country G7 contributions by replenishment cycle (in US$ million) Total country contributions (since 2001) (million $) Country contributions as % of total contributions
2001-2005 2006-2007 2008-2010 2011-2013 2014-2016 2017-2019
Canada 210.3 221.2 413.5 533.0    612.3 415.3 2,405.6 5%
France 485.8 681.8 1,246.2 1,360.6   1,394.4 838.1 6,006.9 13%
Germany 198.3 204.8   849.4 796.8 903.8 667.7 3,620.8 8%
Italy 460.6 360.8   186.9 - 135.9 149.3 1,293.4 3%
Japan  346.5 316.2   625.1 579.4    800.0 792.8 3,460.0 8%
United Kingdom  274.6 385.6   571.1 847.9 1,309.5 1,085.4 4,474.1 10%
United States 1,497.2 1,192.4 2,766.3   3,679.5 3,844.6 2,017.9  14,997.9 33%
Total 3,473.4 3,362.7 6,658.5 7,797.2  9,000.5 5,966.4 36,258.7 79%

Source: Global Fund website

Note: For the 2017-2019 replenishment cycle, the table shows actual contributions as of 12 September 2019 (rather than pledges, as was the case in the analysis above).

Contributions from United Kingdom and United States have risen steadily

Contributions by the UK and US have risen over the last four replenishment cycles. In contrast, France was the only country to reduce its pledges in the 2017-2019 replenishment cycle relative to the previous replenishment. Contributions by the remaining countries – Canada, Germany and Japan – have remained essentially flat over the years, except for Italy, which did not contribute any funding in the 2011-2013 replenishment cycle.

Figure 3: Trends in G7 countries’ contributions to the Global Fund

Note: For the 2017-2019 replenishment cycles, the analysis uses pledges instead of actual contributions because the donor governments are yet to disburse all their monies to the Global Fund. The analysis assumes that the G7 countries will fulfil all of their pledges as most of them have in the past.

G7 countries’ contributions to increase in 2020-2022 replenishment cycle

Governments of five G7 countries have increased their contributions for the next funding cycle, 2020-2022, relative to the last one, 2017-2019. Among the five countries that have already pledged their support to the Global Fund, Germany announced the largest increment (17.6%), closely followed by the UK (16%), Canada (15.7%) and Italy (15%). France and the US are yet to announce their pledges (though the US Senate Appropriations Committee has posted its bill approving an increase of 15.6%) but are also likely to contribute more. France, which hosts the replenishment conference next month, is emerging as a key player in global health. The US, despite proposed cuts to global health spending, increased its contribution to the Global Fund for its fiscal year 2020  to $1.56 billion, a $210-million increase.


Table 3: G7 countries’ contributions for the 2020-2022 replenishment cycle compared to 2017-2019
Country Replenishment cycle Change in contribution
  2017-2019 2020-2022 Absolute change Percent change
Canada 615,714,504 712,381,681.4 96,667,177 15.7%
Germany 942,655,148 1,108,562,455 165,907,306 17.6%
Italy 157,109,191 180,675,570.1 23,566,379 15.0%
Japan 800,000,000 840,000,000 40,000,000 5.0%
United Kingdom 1,569,242,844 1,820,321,699 251,078,855 16.0%

Source: Analysis by the Global Fund Observer (the author uses pledges for the 2017-2019 cycle and increments reported by the Global Fund to compute the absolute pledges for the 2020-2022 cycle)


Note: France and the United States will announce their pledges to the Global Fund for the 2020-2022 replenishment cycle at the pledging conference in Lyon, France, on 10 October 2019.

These increments in pledges are encouraging, but do not yet guarantee that the Global Fund will reach the “at least $14 billion” its Investment Case says it needs to save the lives of 16 million people, cut the mortality rate from HIV, TB and malaria in half, and build stronger health systems, in the next three years.


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