Universal Access Meeting: CSOs, SADC parliamentarians call for
inclusion
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Press Statement
Johannesburg, South Africa
3rd March 2006
Civil society organisations from across southern Africa and or-
ganisations working on HIV/AIDS issues in Africa, including rep-
resentatives of CBO's, AIDS service organisations, People living
with HIV/AIDS, Trade Unions, Academia, Women's Rights organisa-
tions Faith based Organisations, and members of the SADC Parlia-
mentary Forum met in Johannesburg to deliberate on the Africa
process of the Universal Access drive to scale up HIV/AIDS re-
lated prevention, treatment, care and support for all those that
need it by 2010.
After deliberations, the meeting resolution called on the March
6 to 8 Africa process meeting in Brazzaville to note and act on
the following:
1. That the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has infected an estimated
25milllion Africans and killed at least 3 million Africans in
each of the last two years is too serious an issue for African
Civil Society and elected members of parliament to be excluded
from the Africa consultation process.
2. That immediate and full consultations with Civil Society and
elected members of Parliaments in Africa take place before the
Africa process goes any further otherwise the legitimacy of the
Africa outcomes will remain questionable.
3. That sustainable financing for Universal Access in Africa
will remain unachievable as long as the IMF/world Bank Medium
Term Expenditure Frameworks/Ceilings (3 year planning tools) re-
strict public expenditure on health and education and undermine
access to sufficient financing required to scale up the response
to the worsening epidemic.
It is estimated that at least an initial immediate investment of
$90 billion is required for healthcare personnel, hospitals and
other infrastructure, medicines and so forth in Africa as
against the $50 billion promised globally by 2010.
A first step towards sustainable financing will be for African
governments to immediately implement the 15% allocation of an-
nual budgets to health as contained in the Abuja heads of state
declaration
4. That members of parliament and civil society must henceforth
be fully and transparently involved in all processes determining
national priorities for budgeting and budget allocation
5. That considering the disproportionate number of Africans in-
fected by HIV/AIDS All African governments must immediately com-
mence heavy and coordinated investment in research and develop-
ment for new technologies for prevention methods such as vac-
cines.
Considering the growing infection of millions of women due to
biological vulnerabilities, power relations and gender based
violence in society; development of new gender friendly tech-
nologies such as Microbicides must also be considered a priority
for development within a specific time frame.
6. Similarly, urgent and adequate funds must be set aside for
universal provision of Post Exposure Prophylaxis Treatment for
all women exposed to HIV/AIDS through rape and other acts of
sexual violence against women.
7. African governments must recognise that the biggest obstacle
to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa is the lack of healthcare person-
nel worsened by both "poaching" by more developed countries and
lack of investment in the healthcare and educational systems in
Africa. For instance, an average patient doctor ration of 1 doc-
tor to 25,000 patients n Africa compared to 1 doctor to 500 pa-
tients in the developed countries is inadequate and cannot cope
with a HIV/AIDS population of an estimated 25 million.
For this reason, a 6 year plan must be set in place immediately
for the provision of tens of thousands of key personnel required
to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
8. Similarly, a costed framework must be developed from the Af-
rica consultative process aimed at immediately determining the
number of new hospitals and clinics needed in both African urban
and rural areas to cope with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
9. That African governments, in recognising the HIV/AIDS epi-
demic as a state of emergency must immediately invoke the provi-
sions of the TRIPS for compulsory licensing to facilitate manu-
facture and export of affordable generics to treat HIV/AIDS suf-
fers.
10. That African governments must take into consideration the
role of conflict in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and take
immediate steps to eradicate the major causes of conflict such
as undemocratic and intransparent elections, while also urgently
dedicating funds to post conflict rehabilitation processes.
--
Omololu Falobi
Executive Director
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria
Media Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS & Rep Health
44B Ijaye Road, Ogba, Lagos
PO Box 56282, Falomo, Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +234-1-7731457, 8128565
mailto:omololu@nigeria-aids.org
http://www.nigeria-aids.org