HEALTH: Britain Takes Lead in Fight Against AIDS

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jul 20 2004 (IPS) - Britain has become a “pre-eminent global AIDS funder” with the announcement of a 2.8 billion dollar grant, UNAIDS chief Peter Piot said Tuesday.

“UNAIDS welcomes the UK’s new strategy on aids,” Piot said in a statement. “This is a qualitative step forward, and demonstrates the scale of leadership needed if we are to turn this crisis around.”

UNAIDS, which spans several UN agencies in organising the fight against AIDS, said the new initiative announced by British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday morning to spend at least 2.8 billion dollars over the next three years on HIV-related programmes “represents a tremendous step forward in the global effort to combat AIDS.”

UNAIDS said it “applauds the strategy’s strong focus on women, young people and orphans; often the most vulnerable groups”. The UK is once again showing the importance of directed and informed leadership, it said.

The increased spending on AIDS is a part of a commitment announced by the British government last week to increase its aid budget to 0.7 percent of its gross national income (GNI) by 2013. HIV related programmes will account for a substantial part of increased spending.

The new British AIDS budget will aim also for greater harmonization of AIDS funding by donors. Britain co-hosted a meeting with UNAIDS and the United States in April this year to reach an agreement on fresh approaches to underpinning AIDS funding.

Blair spoke of a “compelling sense of urgency” in tackling HIV and AIDS as he launched the new funding and strategy at a breakfast meeting. The new funding is intended to fight the virus in the developing world.

The breakfast meeting was attended by experts, workers and HIV positive people from around the world. Secretary for the Department for International Development Hilary Benn and Peter Piot also attended the meeting.

“Ignoring the issue of AIDS is simply not an option,” Blair said at the meeting. “This is a tragedy that spans personal and global scales and it is appalling that life expectancy in some of the worst affected areas is falling back to pre-1950 levels.”

Blair added: “But this is not just about the millions of personal and family tragedies, appalling though these are. Already fragile economies are seeing their working age population destroyed. Quite simply we cannot hope to tackle poverty on a global scale without addressing AIDS.”

Blair was speaking as the government unveiled its strategy to fight AIDS with the money allocated in the budget last week. The strategy would have a clear emphasis on care and treatment, as well as prevention.

Blair said the new funding was not an act of charity, and that funding the fight against AIDS is in the interest of the whole world.

Blair said at least 280 million dollars will be spent on helping children whose parents have died from AIDS. The money will also be spent on children affected by AIDS in other ways.

The new funding will be spent by the British government. But Blair additionally doubled Britain’s contribution to the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria over the next three years to about 300 million dollars.

Blair told participants in the breakfast meeting that it was important to have strong leadership on the issue within the countries most seriously affected.

A message from the breakfast meeting was sent to Nelson Mandela as co- chair of the International Aids Trust.

AIDS will be “the centrepiece of the UK’s presidency of the G8 next year and the focus of the Commission for Africa which was launched by the Prime Minister in February,” Blair’s office announced in a statement.

The announcement comes immediately after the international conference on AIDS in Bangkok.