UN agency and donor countries call for coordinated action to eliminate AIDS

In the wake of its report saying the world will need some $200 billion over the next 20 years to reverse the AIDS pandemic, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) joined three donor countries today in calling for coordinated global action to create effective treatment programmes in developing countries.

“In order to get ahead of the epidemic, the international community must work together to scale up the AIDS response,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said at a meeting in London.

“This means maximizing donor coordination, mobilizing new resources and ensuring that the available funds for AIDS are spent effectively on the ground. Today’s high-level meeting will come up with ways to make the money work,” he said.

The meeting was attended by 93 people – cabinet ministers, Government AIDS experts and people living with the disease from France, the United Kingdom, the United States and some developing countries, as well as representatives of multilateral organizations.

The conference focused on coordinating the responsibilities of donor countries, multilateral institutions and individual developing countries in carrying out more effective AIDS programmes and on how much money was needed to tackle the pandemic globally, UNAIDS said.