What Could $77 Billion Do? Hint: A Lot More Than Jets and Stock Buybacks


In 2024, 2.5–3.5 million people died from famine, HIV/AIDS, and malaria — overwhelmingly in Africa and fragile regions of the Global South - the population of Rome or Croatia. The cost to solve all three globally? Just $77 billion per year. 

Compare that to:

  • Apple’s $110 billion stock buyback in 2024 — the largest in history.

  • The F-35 fighter jet program, projected to cost $2 trillion globally.

  • Leopard 2A8 tanks, priced at $30 million each, with European nations spending billions for small fleets.

  • NATO’s 2025 defence spending hike, adding hundreds of billions more to military budgets.

  • The USA pet food market of $82BN.

  • $4BN from say each of the G20 a rounding error in national budgets

India: A Public Health Blueprint for the World

India’s trajectory (leaving aside China's massive growth since 2000 too) offers a powerful counter-narrative for improvements and reform:

IssueDeaths in India (2024)Global Context
HIV/AIDS~32,000Africa: ~420,000
Malaria~3,500Africa: ~579,000
FamineNegligibleAfrica: ~1.5–2.5 million

India’s success stems from:

  • Universal access to antiretroviral therapy

  • Fortified food systems via POSHAN Abhiyan and PDS

  • Digital health platforms like U-WIN and eVIN

India now supplies 70% of the world’s HIV drugs, and aims for zero indigenous malaria cases by 2027. 

While with BIMSTEC, the vast rice reserves of India and ASEAN could be easily deployed to end famine in East Africa.

The 5 Worst-Hit Nations for Famine in 2025

CountryIPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe)Key Drivers
Sudan637,000 peopleConflict, displacement, blocked aid
South Sudan63,000 peopleFlooding, instability, economic collapse
Mali2,600 peopleConflict, grain inflation
Haiti8,400 peopleGang violence, aid blockades
Gaza Strip470,000 peopleBlockade, military operations

These five nations alone account for over 1 million famine deaths, with Sudan’s confirmed famine marking the first global declaration since 2020. Gaza's woes largely man-made with Israeli border blocks to aid.

Live Aid: 40 Years Later

On 13 July 1985, Live Aid raised £114 million ($200M over time) for Ethiopia’s famine, which had already claimed 400,000 to 1.2 million lives. It was a global moment of solidarity.

Today, Tigray, Ethiopia faces a silent catastrophe: 4.5 million people need food aid, and 650,000 women and children have lost support due to funding cuts.

Clearly there are questions as to why Ethiopia and East Africa after the world's largest aid intervention to date and guns falling silent across Africa and MENA, is still failing to feed its people after 40 years.

UN Special Drawing Rights (SDRs): A Lifeline Ignored

SDRs are IMF-issued reserve assets meant to help countries in crisis. In 2021, $650 billion was allocated globally — but only $55 billion reached debt-vulnerable nations.

In 2025:

  • The UN’s Sustainable Development Report calls for urgent reform of the Global Financial Architecture (GFA).

  • The SDR 2025 agenda urges redirection of SDRs toward green and inclusive recovery, not just reserve buffers.

  • Yet, SDR re-channeling remains underused, while famine deaths soar and climate shocks intensify.

Time for a Values Shift

Ending mass death isn’t a fantasy — it’s a matter of allocation. The challenge isn’t scientific or logistical. Nor financial: there's lots of money available. It’s political.

India shows what’s possible. Apple’s $3M AIDS donation in 2024 was just 0.003% of its profit. Meanwhile, NATO’s 5% defence hike could fund global health many times over.

That 5% looking increasingly untenable, not just in stockpiling bullets in warehouses across EU, but with a 1.5 % portion that is essentially matching aid cuts. Aid in the 21C is arguably a greater need, and return, than more guns.

Live Aid showed what’s possible. Now it’s time to ask: how do we globalize that success — and demand accountability from the financial and defence empires that could fund it tomorrow?

Big Tech underpaying on tax can be corralled into greater CSR with Defence refocused on Aid and UNSDR 90% reform and as a global umpire for a 21C focus on Africa and ROTW key challenges.

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