Gates pledges $750m to prop up health fund
Microsoft Corporation founder Bill Gates
Image by: LARRY DOWNING / REUTERS
Image by: LARRY DOWNING / REUTERS
Bill Gates is riding to the rescue of a beleaguered health fund by pledging $750 million to fight three of world's killer diseases.
The Microsoft founder says the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's donation to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria comes on top of $650 million it contributed to the fund over the past decade.
Gates said Thursday his pledge at the World Economic Forum is meant to encourage other potential donors.
He said that "these are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world's poorest."
A donor backlash over fund losses forced it to cancel more than $1 billion in new spending last year.
The fund's executive director Dr. Michel Kazatchkine said Tuesday he is resigning.
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