Forum Brief: World Aids Day

Marking World Aids Day, Tony Blair has launched an appeal to help other nations deal with the epidemic.

"No corner of the globe has escaped. Aids is the biggest killer in Africa," he wrote in The Sun.

John Bercow, shadow international development secretary, said: "We fully support the government's support of World AIDS Day. It is vitally important that this disease is made priority both domestically and internationally.

"The death toll of HIV/Aids has reached three million per annum. For developing nations this can no longer be seen a purely a health issue but also a development issue.

"With 70 per cent of those in the world suffering from the disease live in sub-Saharan Africa, we are particularly concerned with how the epidemic is affecting that region. These countries are already finding it difficult to achieve their Millennium Development Goals.

"Now this disease is wiping out a generations, decreasing their chance of economic stability and long term development. If nothing is done to change this, thousands of children will be destined to a life of poverty.

"In sub-Saharan countries, increasingly new cases arise from women who catch HIV from their partners and husbands. They have little education of which preventative measures they should take. Additionally, not enough schemes offering counselling and medication are currently available to them.

"Both China and India are on the cusp of regional HIV/Aids epidemics. We will be discussing with those governments how they should be tackling the disease.

"Governments of all these countries must be fully engaged to tackle this disease not only by giving those who are infected access to Anti-Retro Viral drugs but also through prevention, education and behaviour change."

Forum Response: Marie Stopes International

Patricia Hindmarsh, external relations director, said: "The international donor community is failing many of those countries most affected by HIV/Aids by not adequately supporting programmes that promote and distribute male and female condoms.

"Our advocacy pack, Cover the World with Condoms, explains the terrible toll that HIV/Aids continues to take on some of the poorest people in the world and shows that unless there is political commitment at the highest levels of government and society, many HIV/Aids prevention efforts will fail.

"The most important goal of securing supplies is guaranteeing that women and men can make good reproductive and sexual health choices.

"It is a sad irony that after decades of building clients' trust and facilitating choice, providers may not be able to sustain adequate levels of supplies. Without such security, hard won improvements in individual, family and maternal health will be lost."

Forum Response: World Vision

Clive Bacon, an HIV/Aids specialist with World Vision, said: "To date, very little Aids prevention work has been aimed at African children.

"They are generally not yet sexually active and have among the lowest HIV/Aids rates in the whole population.

"If we can reach them and teach them now, they will learn how to protect themselves and maybe start to protect a whole generation. It's a glimmer of hope for the future.

"We need to teach these youngsters all those crucial real life skills - about sexuality, communication and the consequences of decisions they make. They are skills that could change their lives and the lives of many others."

Forum Response: The Community Fund

Mike Day, head of international grants, said: "When we reviewed our International Grants programme in 2001 we made HIV/Aids a clear funding priority.

"We also expect that even if projects are not directly addressing HIV/Aids issues, they should consider the effect of the epidemic on the area where they will work.

"This is then taken into account in the design of the project, for example, to ensure that people with HIV/Aids are not left out of the planning process, will share in the benefits of the project and that partner organisations' policies cover HIV/Aids issues.

"In total the Community Fund has awarded over £14 million across all its grants programmes to organisations who help people with HIV/Aids both in the UK and overseas."