UN chief warns of failure to achieve targets in fighting AIDS

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 23, 2003

UN chief warns of failure to achieve targets in fighting AIDS

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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Monday that the international community would not achieve any of those targets by 2005 on fighting AIDS at the rate of progress made in the past two years.

In a speech at a plenary session of the General Assembly on the follow-up to the Declaration of Commitment on HIV-AIDS, adopted in 2001, Annan said the world's nations agreed two years ago that defeating HIV-IDS would require commitment, resources and action.

"Today, we have the commitment. Our resources are increasing. But the action is still far short of what is needed," he told the high-level meeting on AIDS.

The UN chief said significant new resources to fight the epidemic had been pledged, both by individual member states and through the Global Fund Against AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria, and the fund, established soon after the General Assembly special session on HIV-AIDS in 2001, had now committed 1.5 billion US dollars to 93 countries.

"We have seen new levels of collaboration among national governments, the UN family and civil society in developing proposals to the fund, and in bringing essential services to those who need them most," he said.

He said the vast majority of member states now had in place multi-sectoral national strategies to combat HIV-AIDS, and a growing number of national and transnational corporations were adopting AIDS policies in the workplace.

However, "we have failed to reach several of the Declaration's objectives set for this year," he said.

"Even more important, we are not on track to begin reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005. By that date, we should have cut by a quarter the number of young people infected with HIV in the worst affected nations; we should have halved the rate at which infants contract HIV; and we should have comprehensive care programs in place," he said.

"At the current rate of progress, we will not achieve any of those targets by 2005," he warned.

He said one-third of all countries still had no policies to ensure that women have access to prevention and care and more than a third of heavily affected countries still had no strategies in place for looking after the increasing number of AIDS orphans.

Two-thirds of all countries failed to provide legal protection against discrimination for the groups that were most vulnerable to HIV and only one in nine people wanting to know their HIV status had access to testing, and in sub-Saharan Africa, only one in 16, he said.

He said only one in 20 pregnant women receiving antenatal care had access to services that could help her avoid transmitting HIV to her baby, or to treatment that could prolong her life.

"If we are to stand any chance to meeting the 2005 targets, these ratios will have to be improved drastically," he said.

According to the UN chief, over the past year, spending on the fight against AIDS in low and middle income countries grew by 20 percent, and it will reach 4.7 billion dollars per year. Since 1999, domestic spending on AIDS by governments in these countries has doubled.

"Yet we are still only half way to the ten billion dollars a year that is needed by 2005. The resources available must continue to increase -- through the Global Fund, but also through all other efforts, including those of national governments in heavily affected countries," he said.

The General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV-AIDS opened this morning and is expected to last till late at night.

Representatives from more than 130 UN member states and international organizations, including 18 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the meeting.

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