UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years92In many countries,business recognized theimportance of providinginformation aboutpreventing HIV infection.UNAIDS/B.NeelemanAt the January 1999 retreat of the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (CCO) inAnnapolis, Maryland, the Cosponsors and the Secretariat agreed on a concept for intensifiedaction against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in the Resolution to Create and Supportthe Partnership. They resolved to work together on an emergency basis to develop andput into practice an International Partnership against AIDS in Africa (IPAA). The UNAIDSSecretariat was responsible for developing and implementing the partnership.During 1999, advances were made on many fronts – advocacy with leaders and in themedia, technical support to countries and discussions at the highest levels of the UN togain vital support and work with donors.In May 1999, at their annual meeting 22 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African finance ministersfor the first time put AIDS on the agenda as a separate item and stated that the epidemicwas ‘a major threat to economic and social development’. Piot addressed the meeting 23 .“After my speech there was dead silence. I thought, ‘another of those moments of supremedenial’”. “But then”, he added, “one after another the Finance Ministers spoke, oftenmaking personal references to AIDS in the family or a colleague”. That evening, manyjoined him for a drink: “The problem was how to stop the discussion”.The next day, Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada and His Holiness Abune Paulos, thePatriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, shook hands with HIV-infected Ethiopians22The meeting is known formally as the Joint Conference of African Ministers of Finance and EconomicDevelopment and Planning.23Altman (1999).