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Africa Policy E-Journal
Africa: AIDS Assembly Summary, 3 Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for Africa at http://www.africapolicy.org +++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide SUMMARY CONTENTS: This series of three postings contains brief topical excerpts from the official United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, June 27, 2001, paired with related excerpts from parallel statements released by youth, African civil society groups, and international civil society groups at the UN General Assembly Special Session. Because of the exceptional importance of evaluating the outcome of this unprecented global gathering, we are making an exception of sending out three postings for your reference. This posting contains excerpts on resources. Related postings focus on prevention and treatment and on rights and discrimination.
The full UN Declaration is available at:
The full Youth Position Paper is available at:
"HIV/AIDS and Civil Society: Africa's Concerns and Perspectives" is
available at:
"A Civil Society Perspective on the UNGASS Declaration of
Commitment" is available at: +++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RESOURCES *UN Declaration, June 27, 2001*
[80] By 2005, through a series of incremental steps, reach an
overall target of annual expenditures on the epidemic of between
U.S. $7 billion and U.S. $10 billion in low- and middle-income
countries and those countries experiencing or at risk of
experiencing rapid expansion for prevention, care, treatment,
support and mitigation of the impact of H.I.V./AIDS, and take
measures to ensure that needed resources are made available,
particularly from donor countries and also from national budgets,
bearing in mind that resources of the most affected countries are
seriously limited. . [81] Call on the international community, where possible, to provide assistance for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in developing countries on a grant basis; [83] Urge the developed countries that have not done so to strive to meet the targets of 0.7 percent of their gross national product for overall official development assistance and the targets of earmarking of 0.15 percent to 0.20 percent of gross national product as official development assistance for least developed countries, as agreed, as soon as possible, taking into account the urgency and gravity of the H.I.V./AIDS epidemic. . . . [87] Without further delay, implement the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiative (H.I.P.C.) and agree to cancel all bilateral official debts of H.I.P.C. countries as soon as possible, especially those most affected by H.I.V./AIDS, in return for their making demonstrable commitments to poverty eradication and urge the use of debt-service savings to finance poverty-eradication programs, particularly for H.I.V./AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support and other infections. *Youth Caucus Position Paper, June 27, 2001* We call upon youth structures, governments and international partners to join us in the following: 6. Establishing a Youth Advisory Board to be put in place by the General Assembly, to monitor funds and programs of the Global AIDS Health Fund, and integrate youth into all other decision-making structures established by the Fund at national, regional, and global levels. + We recognize that AIDS is a development crisis, and therefore necessitates a response that addresses the underlying poverty and inequality that fuels the epidemic. + We call on governments and civil society to prioritize poverty eradication programs that place young people at the center. + We call for complete debt cancellation for all countries with high HIV prevalence rates, in order to free resources which must be effectively spent on social services such as health and education. *African Civil Society Statement, June 26, 2001* 3. Alleviating the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS The mutually reinforcing relationship of poverty and HIV/AIDS stands in sharp relief in Africa. Conflict, corruption, issues of rights denial, gender inequality, the lack of an enabling environment, and globalization need to be concretely addressed in the Declaration. The Declaration is weak on its links to agreed international development targets, and it is questionable how these targets will be achieved without explicit commitments and actions to control HIV/AIDS. 4. Resources Most countries struggling with the impact of HIV/AIDS do so under a heavy burden of mounting debt due to restructuring imposed by loan mechanism by international financial institutions. In relation to the much-discussed Global Fund, civil society demands its full participation in the process of developing, managing and monitoring the fund. There is need for a committee to be set up outside the existing UN structure and not linked to international financial institutions to manage the funds. This committee should be made up of representatives of countries commensurate with the burden of the disease borne by the countries, and involve civil society. HIV/AIDS is a human emergency and rules governing the global fund should be shaped by the views and aspirations of the people most affected by the disease. Recommendations and follow-up 7. We recommend a scaled up response for HIV/AIDS affected children, including orphans. We call for increased commitment and funding to achieve the international development targets related to education, as a means to reduce the vulnerability of children and adolescents to HIV/AIDS. 10. We demand that, in light of debt in developing countries, new money is made available as grants and not as loans. This is in addition to ongoing negotiations around debt relief/cancellation. 11. Additionally, civil society calls for the establishment of strong national mechanisms to channel funds directly to community groups, and for long term cash funding commitments. *Civil Society Statement, June 27, 2001* Civil Society Access to Resources Governments of both industrialized and resource-poor countries should be held accountable for providing adequate funding for HIV/AIDS-related policies and programmes. We not only urge, but demand that all governments of industrialised countries uphold their commitment to 0.7% of their GNP for overall official development assistance. These funds should be allocated to countries according to challenges and needs. New, additional resources should also be drawn from an accelerated strategy of debt cancellation, consistent with existing Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) especially for the poorest countries that have been most affected by HIV/AIDS. We reiterate that all governments should not only commit themselves to a substantial increase in their national budgets made available for HIV/AIDS, but that they immediately implement a precise, timeframed and publicly transparent plan for these funds, in particular describing how they will be made accessible to NGOs, including community-based and grassroots organisations and organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS. It is critical to ensure that new global funding mechanisms, like the Global Health Fund, recognise, complement and strengthen existing efforts with additional resources and reinforcing strategies. Community-based action is critical to the response to HIV/AIDS, particularly in resource-poor countries: civil society must have access to these additional funds. Their involvement in the management of the Fund is essential for transparency of funding decisions, and to guarantee access. Governments, particularly in poor countries, should collect and disseminate data and information on the impact of the epidemic on various sectors of the community and on policies, programmes and funding allocated to reduce the impact. Follow-up to UNGASS In conclusion, we acknowledge that the Declaration expresses many commitments on the part of member states of the UN General Assembly. However, unfulfilled commitments are not enough: all governments must be held accountable. Follow-up should not only include periodic national reviews and an annual General Assembly, one-day review. We propose the establishment of an international Declaration Monitoring body, similar to the Treaty Monitoring Committees for international conventions, to which governments must submit biannual or triennial reports on their compliance with the provisions of the Declaration. This monitoring body should also review shadow reports generated by civil society and present recommendations to Governments regarding their compliance with the commitments made in the Declaration. Furthermore, the monitoring body must include the active involvement of civil society and people living with HIV/AIDS as a key criterion in assessing compliance.
Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
available on the Africa Action website: To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list, write to e-journal@africaaction.org. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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Africa Policy E-Journal
