HIV/AIDS
39. We published our report Delivering the goods:
HIV/AIDS and the provision of anti-retrovirals on
World AIDS Day 2005 (1 December).[22]
The G8 summit of 2005 set an ambitious target to secure universal
access to treatment for HIV/AIDS sufferers by 2010, but we were
concerned that there was no system in place to track and monitor
progress towards this target. We want to hold the UK Government
to account for the commitment that it made during 2005 to support
international efforts, led by UNAIDS, to achieve the goal of universal
access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support for
all those who need it by 2010. The UK is the second largest donor
for HIV/AIDS, and has pledged £1.5 billion between 2005 and
2008 for HIV/AIDS funding. In our report, we urged the Government
to encourage donors to work together to ensure predictable funding,
and to strive to ensure that its progressive policies are implemented
on the ground. We recommended that interim targets be established
to enable progress towards the 2010 target to be monitored. The
UK Government took up this suggestion and a proposal to this effect
was considered at the UNGASS meeting in New York at the end of
May. Our report and the Government's response were debated in
Westminster Hall.[23]
40. In order to maintain effective oversight, we
decided to review progress on international HIV/AIDS targets each
year, and on World AIDS Day 2006 (1 December), the Committee published
its report on HIV/AIDS: Marginalised groups and emerging epidemics.[24]
The Report underlines our concern that the international targets
on HIV/AIDS are already failing to be met. It focused particular
attention on two distinct but interconnected issues: the provision
of prevention, treatment, care and support to populations which
are marginalised in society, such as intravenous drug-users, commercial
sex-workers and men who have sex with men; and the extent to which
HIV/AIDS policy and programming is effectively addressing emerging
epidemics, including those in Eastern Europe and Asia.
41. Our Report made clear that questions of morality
are not the issue: what is important is finding the most effective
way to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Emerging epidemics generally
start with concentrated epidemics among marginalised groups and
can then spread exponentially among the wider population. We stressed
that, to combat epidemics effectively, the rights and needs of
those most at risk must be as central to strategies as are treatment
and general prevention. We were supportive of DFID's overall policy
of channelling money to countries' national AIDS programmes but
recommended that DFID work with governments to ensure that these
programmes are properly focused and that the rights and needs
of marginalised groups are not overlooked.
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