Fighting the Great Pandemics

15 May 2007

Sir Richard G A Feachem

The last five years have seen a remarkable increase in the level of financing and commitment in the war against AIDS, TB and Malaria. This period has also witnessed remarkable innovations in the business of development finance. The Global Fund has played a central role in both of these phenomena.

Professor Sir Richard Feachem, who lead the Global Fund from its inception in 2002 until March 2007, discusses the fight against the great pandemics and the need to find a new architecture for development finance drawing on the experience of the first five years of the Global Fund. Professor Sir Richard will be cautiously optimistic about the struggle against HIV/AIDS, ambitious in his remarks on malaria, and provocative in his prescriptions for fundamental change in the way in which aid is provided.

Broad Topics: Medicine and Life Science

Sub-topics: Biological Sciences, Medical & Health Science

Areas: ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences

Professor Sir Richard G A Feachem KBE FREng DSc(Med) PhD, a British national, took up his position as the first Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, in July 2002. Sir Richard is concurrently Professor of International Health at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley, and the founding Director of the Institute for Global Health at UCSF and UCB. He is also a Visiting Professor at London University and an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland.

Professor Sir Richard holds a Doctor of Science degree in Medicine and a PhD in Environmental Health. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 2002 he was elected to membership of the Institute of Medicine. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II knighted Professor Sir Richard in 2007. He has also received honours from the Governments of Niger and Togo.

Part of the 2007 Toyota-ANU Public Lecture Series