At the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development , UNAIDS has welcomed the Financing for Development outcome document adopted by 192 countries in a time of multilateral distress. The new Seville Platform For Action calls for actionable and coordinated global efforts to transform and strengthen global health architecture, to advance debt restructuring, strengthen tax authorities and enable more progressive taxation of the wealthy and corporations.
"The Seville Platform for Action is a remarkable leap forward and I congratulate Spain for leading efforts to secure it," said UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima. "This conference must be a turning point where we go beyond traditional understandings of health and development financing. The old consensus may be dying but we can rise to this moment and form a bold, new consensus. The world is in crisis, and solutions are not yet as radical as necessary. But Seville is setting a new pathway for stronger collective action."
In 2023, the entire Africa region received US$ 72 billion in foreign aid but lost US$ 88 billion to illicit financial flows and spent US$ 101 billion in principal and interest of debt repayment. Two in every three countries in Africa are spending more on debt than on healthcare.
During the conference, Ms Byanyima also asked donor countries to keep their commitments, enabling a gradual and responsible transition towards greater domestic health financing, while low and middle-income countries are given the fiscal space to invest in life-saving health services, including HIV prevention and treatment programmes. Debt restructuring and progressive taxation, including of the super-rich, are key elements to broaden the fiscal space necessary to fulfil the right to health.
UNAIDS has warned of a deadly funding crisis facing the AIDS response as the United States and other partners cut international funding assistance. UNAIDS estimates that if the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is permanently discontinued and nothing replaces it, the world will see an additional 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million new HIV infections by 2029. That means 2,400 people will die and 5,800 people will acquire HIV every day.
UNAIDS is also calling for more flexibility in intellectual property rules to enable access to lifesaving medicines and other essential tools such as long acting injectables that can prevent new HIV infections.
During the conference in Seville, UNAIDS co-organized, and Ms Byanyima participated in a Special Event hosted by the Government of Spain: Health Financing for a safe and sustainable economy: towards a Sevilla health fianancing agenda for action.
During the event, Spain's Minister of Health, Mónica García Gómez said, "The Seville platform is an opportunity to show that we can change world governance to put people and their health at the centre. Health must be a right for everyone everywhere in the world."
UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations-UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank-and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org
