Our Leaders Are Not Keeping Their Promises, Says UNAIDS Head

by Nigel Marsh - Hope Communications

BARCELONA - In frank speeches all this week, starting with last night's opening ceremony, UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot promises he will be hammering one message hard - our leaders need to do more to keep their promises in relation to the fight against AIDS.

"The difference between this conference and previous conferences is that AIDS is now a global political issue, and that's where it should be," he told journalists before taking part in the opening ceremony. "Top politicians have, in the past, made a lot of very great speeches, but after the conferences were over they haven't been translated into action. That can't be allowed to continue. My theme this week is 'Keeping The Promise'."

He acknowledged that more money than ever before is being spent on AIDS - a six-fold increase 'from all sorts of sources'. But with only $2.8 bn committed this year, out of the $11bn his agency estimates is necessary, much more can be done to confront 'the worst pandemic in human history'.

"When you look at the number of positive people in treatment in the poorest countries we still have a long way to go - and to a certain extent we have failed to stop the expansion of the pandemic," he admitted. "Many of the answers to the problems are intrinsically political, they are not technical issues.

"I was very disappointed as far as the outcome of the G8 summit in Canada recently. One of the themes was Africa. There is one paragraph out of 100 that says Africa's development will be a pipe dream if AIDS is not contained.

"But where was the action in terms of new money from the G8? It's not there. We have to increase the activism that will bring political change."

Piot's agenda for the future includes:

maintaining policial leadership in the fight against AIDS, and doing more to get the leaders of countries threatened by AIDS, but not yet badly affected, to take the crisis seriously
getting more resources for the fight - where do we get $10 bn a year for poor countries to reduce transmission, and care for the sick and orphans?
scaling up successful small projects around the world to a degree where they genuinely impact whole countries
bringing institutional behavioural change - "for example, in Botswana, good economic and social development in recent years means the country is not eligible any more for development assistance ... because of AIDS it risks undeveloping again and going back to the status of a least-developed nation."

Responding to a question, Piot said the religious community has a larger part to play than it has managed so far.

"We have seen a very active engagement in some countries. One example is Senegal, where Moslem and Christian leaders are part of the secret of the country's success [in reducing prevalence]. That hasn't been the case everywhere.

"My message when I meet religious leaders is that the first thing they can do is to speak out against stigma and discrimination - that doesn't cost them anything."