UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years116 Raising money as well as awarenessFor about two years, the heads of both UNAIDS and WHO had been discussing and planningwith a range of partners how to raise the enormous sums needed to provide adequate care,support and treatment for people living with HIV in low-income countries (as well as for otherserious infectious diseases). Some donors were clearly open to a major initiative, but seriousplanning and hard negotiations were needed.In July 2000, the communiqué of the meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) nations in Okinawa,Japan, announced an ambitious plan of action on infectious diseases, acknowledgingthat health is central to economic development. It recognized that of all the communicablediseases linked to poverty, AIDS has the largest impact on individuals and societies.The seeds were sown for what would eventually become the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis and Malaria.At a follow-up G8 meeting in December 2000, several donors, including Canada, the EuropeanCommission and the UK, said it was time to move forward. Until this point, the EuropeanUnion had not shown much political leadership in responding to AIDS, although it had been aEastern Europe hasseen a steep rise inHIV infections over thepast few years. In Kiev,Ukraine, a worker with amobile needles exchangeproject hands out cleanneedles and informationin the street as part ofan HIV preventionprogramme for injectingdrug users.Gideon Mendel for theInternational HIV/AIDS Alliance/Corbis