This is a chance to do business differently, and will provide exceptional value for money as studies have shown that these investments will pay for themselves within a decade- saving billions of pounds for HIV treatment in the future, and more importantly saving millions of lives.
' A remarkable clinical trial in 2011 proved that treatment can be 96 % effective in preventing the transmission of HIV '
Against this backdrop of incredible hope and opportunity, however, came the news that funding for the largest financier of anti-retroviral medicines for people living with HIV, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria had been dramatically reduced at the end of 2011. The Global Fund is the world’ s largest international financier of the three diseases, providing the over 50 % of global anti-retroviral drugs in 150 countries. Coupled with a certain degree of“ donor fatigue”, and the reduction of bi-lateral spending on HIV and AIDS programmes, this puts our hopes of achieving the Millennium Development Goals even further in jeopardy. In spite of recent progress, AIDS still claims the lives of almost two million people around the world each year 5, and HIV and AIDS remains the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age 6.
' In spite of recent progress, AIDS still claims the lives of almost two million people around the world each year '
So what would my new radical policy be? To commit the UK Government to creating an“ AIDS free generation.” This is an ambitious goal, but by no means an impossible one, and it has recently become a policy priority of the government of the United States.
What is required to make this happen?
Firstly we need renewed international leadership from donor governments, particularly the UK. The decision of the Coalition Government to retain its commitment to the 0.7 % target of spending on international development aid is laudable, but we need to be prouder of how we are spending this money, and not shy away from the limelight on the world stage. Under the previous Labour administration, the UK led global efforts to tackle poverty at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, and galvanised plans to secure the ambitious goal to achieve universal access to HIV treatment by 2010.
The UK needs to use its position and influence with other G8 leaders to ensure that treating people who are living with HIV remains a priority and critically, that the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria should not suffer as a result of the global financial crisis. People living in extreme poverty should not be made to bear the brunt of an economic problem they played no part in creating. Furthermore, we should not hide behind the technicalities of the genuine need to reform one of world’ s largest and most transparent development institutions to prevent people from receiving the life-saving drugs that they so desperately need.
We need our Government to mobilise other countries to support the Global Fund and work with other donors and developing country governments to implement the new evidence produced by the UN to introduce evidence based programming for HIV and AIDS. This includes scaling up the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, targeted condom provision, and voluntary male circumcision- all methods which have been proven to work.
5 United Nations( 2012), The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012
6 WHO( 2009), Women and Health: Today’ s Evidence, Tomorrow’ s Agenda. WHO: Geneva, p. 43 revolutionise. it 41