The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $912 million pledge to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria over the next three years, calling on governments to make critical decisions that could save millions of lives.
Speaking at the 2025 Goalkeepers event on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, described the Global Fund as “one of the most effective lifesaving initiatives” in modern history.
Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has helped cut deaths from AIDS, TB, and malaria by more than 60 per cent and is credited with saving over 70 million lives while strengthening global health security.
Gates said the new commitment brings the foundation’s total contributions to $4.9 billion, making it one of its largest investments. He stressed that every dollar invested in the Global Fund generates an estimated $19 in health and economic returns.
“With millions of lives on the line, the level of investment over the next three years will determine whether the world saves lives, curbs HIV, TB and malaria, and bolsters economies and health systems,” Gates said.
The $912 million pledge is expected to encourage other governments, philanthropists, and private-sector partners to support the Fund’s Eighth Replenishment, co-hosted by South Africa and the United Kingdom. The replenishment cycle concludes in November.
Gates highlighted that current cuts in global health aid risk undoing decades of progress. He cited data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which showed global development assistance for health declined by 21 per cent between 2024 and 2025, reaching its lowest level in 15 years.
“If these cuts hold, they could reverse the hard-won gains that reduced child mortality by half since 2000—from 10 million annual deaths to less than five million,” Gates warned.
Despite shrinking budgets, Gates said there is still a clear roadmap to progress: sustained investments, innovative healthcare solutions, and stronger primary healthcare systems.
Research from the Gates Foundation and IHME suggests that doubling down on these efforts could once again halve child deaths in the next 20 years and eliminate some of the world’s deadliest childhood diseases by 2045.
The roadmap calls for increased support to proven initiatives such as the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as greater investments in primary healthcare, research, and breakthrough innovations.
Promising tools include single-dose malaria treatments, long-acting HIV therapies, maternal vaccines against respiratory and bacterial infections, and artificial intelligence to make drug delivery faster and cheaper.
“Humanity is at a crossroads,” Gates told the more than 1,000 global leaders gathered at the event. “With millions of children’s lives at stake, world leaders have a once-in-a-generation chance to do something extraordinary. The choices they make now will shape the future.”