Who we are

Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a high-level advocacy organisation which seeks to mobilise regional awareness of the serious threat posed by HIV & AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to societies and economies in the Pacific. In pursuing its goals Pacific Friends has a specific interest in highlighting the need to protect the rights of women and children in the Pacific.

Through its advocacy Pacific Friends raises support for the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to emphasis the vital role it plays in resourcing effective country-based plans to reduce the impact and spread of the three pandemics.

In February 2009, Pacific Friends was launched with generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to join the group of Friends of the Global Fund organisations. Friends organisations are separately funded and operate independently of the Global Fund, although they enjoy a close working relationship with the Fund and its officers. Pacific Friends is based in Sydney, Australia where it operates under the auspices of the University of New South Wales Foundation where it has the privilege of structured interaction with strategic partners including the Centre for Social Impact, The Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society and the National Centre in HIV Social Research.

With continued support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pacific Friends is gradually expanding its reach in the Pacific region by forming new partnerships and engaging in a wider approach to public health interventions.

Pacific Friends now also supports and advocates on behalf of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) whose mission it is to save children’s lives and protect people’s health by increasing access to immunisation in the world’s poorest countries. In addition, Pacific Friends launched in April 2012 a dedicated Papua New Guinea Blog that focuses on health programs supported by the Global Fund in the fight against the country’s high disease burden.