Global Fund members have joined forces and plan to combine funds to buy supplies to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. Using their large purchasing power, individual members can save money while stretching their resources to accomplish more with less, according to an All Africa report.

The Global Fund expects to save $140 million over two years, the report said.

“This kind of collaboration across sectors, between partners and manufacturers, is essential to controlling malaria and sharply reducing the number of children who die from it each year. And it’s good business, too,” said Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund.

With their first joint purchase of 90 million mosquito nets treated with insecticide, the fund said it will save $51.2 million. It will then purchase 100 million more nets in 2014.

In May, the Global Fund announced a partnership with UNICEF,  the U.K.’s Department for International Development and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, plus others, including the office of Raymond G. Chambers, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health MDGs and for malaria.

This new effort represents a transparent and proactive approach that would improve visibility, increase production and capacity planning, and encourage competitive pricing, according to Christopher Game, chief procurement officer of the Global Fund.

“The locus of control has shifted from seller to buyer. It enables us to invest more strategically, and concentrate in areas with high impact,” Game said.

The Global Fund is also looking into ways to leverage its purchasing power in other areas, such as buying antiretroviral drugs, diagnostics and male circumcision devices, said Game.

“We applaud the Global Fund’s ability to use its market presence so effectively, in cooperation with other purchasers and manufacturers,” Chambers said.

In the future, the Global Fund said it will support buying from local manufacturers where possible, which would allow input from local experts and save on transportation costs.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was established in 2002. Today, it is the main multilateral funding source for global health, according to the Global Fund website. The Fund invests in more than 140 countries, and reports results of its efforts twice annually.