Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I will need to come back to you on the specific region you were mentioning, but in general we do have the ability to intervene in conflict-affected areas when the epidemics are growing, linked to circumstances like the ones you are indicating. We have a challenging operating environment policy that allows us to step in and ensure that the most affected populations do get the treatment they need.

Foreign Affairs committee  We don't have workers on the ground ourselves. We are all based in Geneva, but we have partners. On this particular region, as I said, I will need to come back to you because this is led by our ground management colleagues. I will need to look at that in particular.

Foreign Affairs committee  That is a fantastic question. I would not be able to refer to longitudinal research to document that, but certainly investing in health has a multiplier effect on the wider development prospects of a country. In the investment case, we have calculated that an investment in the Global Fund brings a return on investment of 1:19.

Foreign Affairs committee  I know Canada is the seventh-largest donor in relative terms. In economic terms, I wouldn't know that off the top of my head.

Foreign Affairs committee  We can come back to you with that.

Foreign Affairs committee  At the strategic level, addressing human rights barriers to health and gender inequality is one of the four pillars of our strategy. This is really important, because we understand this is one of the key drivers of the three diseases. If we don't tackle human rights barriers, we won't end the epidemic, so this is extremely important for us.

Foreign Affairs committee  If you look at the results achieved by the Global Fund and the challenges ahead, it's very clear that we collectively as a partnership have achieved great results in saving lives but we haven't achieved enough in terms of reducing the incidence rates across the three diseases. This speaks very much to your point about the importance of prevention.

Foreign Affairs committee  The top donor in cumulative terms is the U.S., providing $1.3 billion.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. Thank you very much for the question. China stands at this stage as number 20 in terms of cumulative contributions to the Global Fund, since its inception in 2002. We are engaging with them very actively. I think we are engaging with them probably more than before, exactly along the lines that you are indicating, meaning, how they can scale up their financial contribution, as a growing economy that is able to contribute more to the fight against the three diseases in the world but also leveraging their capacity and presence.

Foreign Affairs committee  The Global Fund is a public-private partnership. I have to confess that I was surprised that we were not doing more in that space because we have a wonderful value proposition from the private sector to engage and contribute to the fight. This is definitely something that we are working on increasing.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Canada in last place was $804 million Canadian. I cannot do the math just off the top of my head.

Foreign Affairs committee  I will highlight two or three things that are very important. One is the focus on health system strengthening, meaning that we are not only working towards the three specific diseases, but we know from experience that we need to build health systems in order to end the epidemics.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. In the case of tuberculosis—to pick up the most worrying example among the three diseases—we face very significant global health security threats with multi-drug resistant TB. Multi-drug resistant TB represents a third of the antimicrobial resistance-related deaths in the world.

Foreign Affairs committee  The objective of ending the epidemics by 2030 was set up by the international community in 2015. This is the promise that, in some way, the world has made to itself and to future generations based on global plans that obviously include technical partners: WHO, UNAIDS, Stop TB, and Roll Back Malaria.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Chairman Levitt, Vice-Chair O'Toole, Vice-Chair Caron—he's not here yet—and honourable members of the committee for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Françoise Vanni. I'm the new director of external relations for the Global Fund. I assumed the role last September.