Global target essential to sustain momentum
24 May 2006
The move to provide greater support for the development and implementation of credible, costed, evidence-based and inclusive national responses to HIV/AIDS – as we have seen in the Universal Access process – is a welcome one, but alone will not be enough to stem the tide of HIV or to generate the will necessary to achieve universal access to prevention, care and treatment, according to the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
“The G8 and World Summit commitments were global processes that secured the endorsement of the international community as a whole, both rich and poor countries, those heavily affected by HIV and AIDS and those with relatively contained HIV epidemics. Despite these differences, governments were able to reach agreement on the urgent need to provide people living with and affected by HIV access to prevention and treatment services, wherever they live,” said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
“The outcomes of both the G8 and World Summit processes illustrate the benefits of international cooperation. Making universal access a reality, especially for the world’s poorest, will require agreement on a global target.
“Left to their own devices, some developing country governments will set targets that are not adequate, that lack ambition or are too narrowly defined to bring about the changes in health and social systems that will secure universal access.
“Equally, without internationally agreed targets, we run the risk of letting rich countries and donor governments believe this is no longer their fight. The only way to ensure predictable and sustainable funding for universal access that is backed up by the necessary global policy changes is to have international agreed targets to which we can all be held to account.
“The gains we have made in the global fight against AIDS have been done so with international leadership and determination and there is no reason whatsoever for retreating now from what we know works.
“We must all agree to a global target that requires effort from UN agencies, global donors, the private sector, civil society as well as national governments,” concluded Dr Bermejo.
In its document Achieving Universal Access by 2010: the Alliance’s calls on Member States at the High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, June 2006, the Alliance proposes the adoption of the following language for the Declaration: By 2010, ensure that at least 10 million people have access to HIV treatment, through an acceleration of HIV treatment scale-up efforts involving all stakeholders: civil society, people living with HIV/AIDS, member states, donor countries and multilateral institutions.
