[stop-imf] 'Forgive Africa's Debt and Use Cash to Combat Aids' United Nations Agency Chief

[robert.weissman@essentialinformation.org]

World Bank Development News Press Review
Mon, 19 Jul 2004 09:56:03 -0400



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'Forgive Africa's Debt and Use Cash to Combat Aids' United Nations Agency
Chief
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The head of the United Nations agency for Aids called last Friday (07/16)
for the foreign debt of African countries to be forgiven and the money put
into programs to tackle the Aids epidemic, reports the Financial Times
(07/17).

Speaking at the end of a week-long Aids conference in Bangkok, Peter Piot,
the executive director of UNAids, described Africa's debts as =93the dollar=
s
15 billion annually that disappears down the money pit.=94 The money should
be channeled instead into spending on health and education, =93the building
blocks of the Aids response,=94 he said.

The comments were made at the end of a week in which nearly 20,000
delegates have been disappointed by the lack of progress in addressing the
epidemic on all fronts. No big scientific advances on vaccines or new
drugs have been unveiled and health officials disclosed that only about 7
per cent of the 6 million people in developing countries who should be
receiving Aids drugs are getting them. Meanwhile, 5 million people were
infected with the virus last year. Although the World Health Organisation
admitted that its plan to have 3 million people on treatment by the end of
2005 was running behind schedule, most frustration has been directed at
the US administration and its Dollars 15 billion plan for Aids, says the
news report.

Mr Piot said that more funding was needed but he also promised that the
money that had been made available for Aids projects would start to have a
significant impact over the next two years. "I truly believe that for the
first time there is a real chance that we will get ahead of the epidemic,"
he said. However, delegates at the conference expressed doubts about the
ability of some developing nations to absorb all the cash becoming
available for Aids projects because of the lack of resources.