U.S. should assume leadership role in saving Global Fund

A funding shortfall led the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to announce in November that "it won't make any grants to fund programs for at least two years," a Deseret News editorial notes and calls on the U.S. to take a leadership position in saving the fund. The editorial states, "Few worldwide initiatives have the success record of the Global Fund ..., but those breakthroughs may not have much chance to save many lives," and notes that the non-profit lobbying group "Results is calling for the Obama administration to assemble an emergency meeting of donor nations this spring to find ways to ensure that the fund and its programs are able to continue and to provide new medicines where they are needed most."

"As so often is the case, the United States has assumed a leadership position in generosity toward the world's struggling people. Now it's time for the nation to take a more active leadership role," the news service adds. It concludes, "Even in times of worldwide economic distress, the most advanced nations of the Earth must understand how providing meaningful help to the most impoverished nations is a matter of national security" (1/21).