SOURCE: AFRO-NETS, http://www.afronets.org UNAIDS Launches Progress Report ------------------------------- By Gloria Katusiime in Nairobi The UN Secretary General and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has released a report, which clearly states that the current pace of country activity on HIV/AIDS is insuffi- cient to meet the 2005 goals agreed by all nations at the Special session on HIV/AIDS in 2001. The report was released at the ongoing international conference on AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases taking place in Nairobi Kenya. In 2001 at a special session of the United General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, One hundred and three countries agreed to focus their commitment on HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment of AIDS so that by the year 2015, the UN millennium Development goal, which is to reverse the epidemic, would have been achieved. But according to the report, the UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot says this will not be possible unless significantly greater and sustained commitment is made by governments in fighting the epidemic. The report highlights countries' lack of response in many areas including the lack of HIV/AIDS legislation, the low coverage of HIV/AIDS antiretroviral therapy and the misappropriation of re- sources. While launching the report, Michel Sibide, Director of Country and regional Support Department with UNAIDS said the biggest challenge facing countries affected with AIDS is how to move from advocacy to Action. One of the issues, which came out strongly at the launch of the report was the misappropriation of resources and the lack of ade- quate monitoring facilities. "Even though a lot of money has been mobilized, it is not enough to reach the grass roots" Sibide said. He refrained from accusing governments of corruption but said the challenge of resources was great. Since 1999 the money allocated in the fight against AIDS has dou- bled from about 400 million to over 1 billion US dollars in 2003. The report recommends strongly for the implementation of a com- prehensive package of HIV prevention services that guarantee ac- cess to vulnerable groups, the implementation of sound HIV/AIDS policies in all countries affected with AIDS and a wider coverage of Antiretroviral therapy. Download: "Accelerating Action against AIDS in Africa" Adobe PDf file (78 pp. 5.2 MB!) in English: http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/UNA-docs/ICASA_Report_2003_en_pdf.pdf in French: http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/UNA-docs/ICASA_Report_2003_fr_pdf.pdf