I External aid

Horizontal Issues
The prevention of AIDS no longer concerns only women, men too are being taught to protect themselves
from the virus.
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ANNUAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE
OBJECTIVES OF THE AIDS – POPULATION ACTIONS
AIDS
- Reducing the number of new infections,
- strengthening the health and social security sectors to
face the growing burdens linked to the expansion of the
pandemic,
- supporting governments and communities in assessing
the social and economic impacts of the epidemic,
- developing scientific knowledge about the epidemic and
the project results,
- combating discrimination and social and economic
exclusion of AIDS victims and high risk groups.
POPULATION
- Allowing women, men and adolescents to exercise their
choice freely, with full knowledge of the facts, as to the
number of children they wish to have and the spacing of
births,
- helping to create a socio-cultural, economic and educational
environment that is propitious to the full exercise of
this choice, especially for women and adolescents, in
particular by condemning and eliminating all forms of
sexual violence, mutilation and abuse that undermine
their dignity and their health,
- aiding the development or reform of health systems in
order to improve the accessibility and quality of birthrelated
health care for men and women, including adolescents,
thereby significantly reducing the health risks
for women and children.
For further information:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/aids/html/policiesnf_fr.htm
© Mak RÉMISSA/DSW
5. AIDS AND POPULATION
While it is a global disease, the characteristics and consequences
of AIDS vary from one continent to another, and the
responses cannot be identical. In developing countries, particular
attention must be paid to certain socio-cultural and
economic realities, in particular women’s daily lives and their
conditions of poverty. These realities, in many aspects, tie in
with the demographic problems which affect most of these
regions.
The size of the AIDS pandemic, which has hit developing
countries with full force, has required the European Union to
intensify its efforts to support their national strategies, with
a greater focus on the factors promoting the spread of the
sickness. This approach has led, in particular, to initiatives
to improve the status of women and strengthen basic communities,
which are called on to care for affected families
and individuals.
At the same time, most developing countries find several
obstacles to achieving a lasting human development: unacceptable
levels of childbirth related deaths and deplorable
obstetric conditions are just some of these obstacles. It is
therefore urgently necessary to help developing countries
implement global demographic programmes and politics
covering the entire field of obstetric health.
Alongside the major co-operation programmes with developing
countries, the Community has specific budget headings
(28) which since 1990 have allowed it to finance pilot
projects and one-off actions that respond to these objectives.
(29) In 1994, this particular effort accelerated with the
Action Programme on Population and Development introduced
at the Cairo International Conference, followed by the
Beijing Conference and the Cairo Plus Five Process in 1999.