[afro-nets] WHO's 3 x 5 Target Unlikely To Be Met - Official Says

General afro-nets
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WHO's 3 x 5 Target Unlikely To Be Met, Official Says
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http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040408/449_22612.asp
Thursday, April 8, 2004

The World Health Organization's goal to provide AIDS drugs to 3
million infected people by 2005 is unlikely to be met, the or-
ganization's Africa director, Ebrahim Malick Samba, said during
a visit to Uganda.

"The 3 x 5 is coming," Samba said, "but not as soon as ex-
pected."

Samba said that while the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculo-
sis and Malaria, UNICEF and bilateral partners were "keen" to
support the program, some would be fulfilling their promises of
support later rather than sooner. "You learn that people are
more generous verbally than when it comes to giving," he said.

Nongovernmental organizations say the conflict over generic and
name brand drugs is also delaying the 3 x 5 initiative.

In Uganda the WHO program was set to begin in January, but it
has been postponed indefinitely. While the first batch of drugs
is expected by the end of this month, it is only enough for
6,000 of the targeted 100,000 patients.

According to a report by the East African, the regional health
systems are ill-prepared for the program - another reason for
its delay. To receive antiretroviral drugs, each patient must
have his or her viral load tested regularly and get counseling
from well-trained personnel, a program known as voluntary coun-
seling and testing, or VCT.

Although Uganda is said to be the best-prepared country in the
region, it only has a VCT capacity of 42 percent, and is on a
fast track program to establish new VCT centers. Right now it
only has 170 such centers, but, according to Zainabu Akol, VCT
coordinator in the Ministry of Health, it needs about 400 of
them (David Kaiza, East African/allAfrica.com, April 5).

--
Dr Rana Jawad Asghar
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
http://www.saphf.org

Typhoid Information Group
http://www.typhoid.net

My Home on Internet
http://www.DrJawad.com
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu

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Request for input: NGO report to UNAIDS
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Hello everyone,

Many of you are probably unaware of the fact that civil society
organisations on HIV/AIDS are represented on the board of the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Under the terms of reference setting up UNAIDS, two delegates
(one Main and one Alternate) representing each of the world's
five regions (Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Pacific,
Europe, and North America), sit on its Programme Coordinating
Board (PCB) on behalf of all HIV/AIDS NGOs. The delegates, 10 in
all, are elected in rotation for two-year terms to represent
their regions. Although they have no voting power, they sit in
on all PCB meetings (usually twice a year) and can make contri-
butions and proposals on all PCB agenda.

Myself (Omololu Falobi, representing Journalists Against AIDS
Nigeria) and Ms Fernanda Teixeira (representing the Red Cross
Society of Mozambique) are the current African Main Delegate and
Alternate Delegate respectively. Fernanda's tenure will be ex-
piring later this year and a Call for Nomination for candidates
to replace her will soon be advertised on this listserv and
other AIDS-related listservs, media and other fora.

Currently, all NGO delegates on the PCB are preparing a global
report to be presented at the next annual meeting that will take
place in Geneva in June.

We have planned to create five regional reports that will be
summarized into a global one and that will be presented at the
PCB meeting. The report will convey civil society's perspec-
tives, critique and aspirations on the HIV/AIDS realities in
each of our continents, especially as related to the work of UN-
AIDS. Simply put, the report will serve as the NGO position pa-
per on HIV/AIDS in our respective regions. Remember that the PCB
is the highest policy-making structure of UNAIDS, so here's a
chance to contribute to defining the shape of HIV/AIDS response
in your region!

In order to make our report more manageable, the NGO Delegation
have agreed to focus our inputs on four broad themes:
1. Prevention, care and treatment
2. Legal, ethical and Human Rights issues
3. Gender imbalance
4. Partnership and sustainability (including Monitoring and
    Evaluation; Capacity building for proposal development, program
    implementation and reporting; Partnership of civil society and
    UN on country level; Multi sectoral cooperation, public/private
    partnerships).

Fernanda and I need your help to come up with our report on pri-
orities for action on HIV/AIDS in Africa. Please share with us
your thoughts about the pressing issues that you think we should
bring to the attention of UNAIDS.

Due to time constraints, we need to have your comments by April
15th. Please send your thoughts to us at any of the e-mail ad-
dresses below:
mailto:omololu@nigeria-aids.org
mailto:fernanda.teixeira@redcross.org.mz

Thank you for your enthusiastic responses!

Omololu Falobi
Programme Director
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria
44B Ijaye Road, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria
mailto:omololu@nigeria-aids.org