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Africa: Abuja Summit, Annan Speech
Africa: Abuja Summit, Annan Speech
Date distributed (ymd): 010426
Document reposted by APIC
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service
provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy
Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on
Africa). Find more information for action for Africa at
http://www.africapolicy.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+ +health+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
This posting contains the speech by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
at the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other
Infectious Diseases, taking place in Abuja, Nigeria. SecretaryGeneral
Annan called on both African leaders and rich countries to
commit resources to fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic and related
diseases. He called for at least $7 to $10 billion a year to be
committed to the struggle against HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Among other points, he also stressed that prevention and treatment
are equally necessary:
"Everyone who is infected should have access to medicine and
medical care. Now we know that that is possible, it is surely an
ethical imperative. It is also essential to any successful
prevention strategy - because, so long as testing positive is a
death sentence without hope, many people will not even want to know
their HIV status.
In short, we cannot and should not choose between prevention and
treatment. We must do both."
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: for a special PBS newshour report from Malawi on AIDS in
Africa, aired on April 25, 2001, see:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/aids_in_africa/index.html
The Summit convened by the Organization of African Unity and hosted
by Nigeria is taking place on 26-27 April, preceded by ministerial
and technical meetings on 24-25 April. In addition to African
leaders, participants include heads of United Nations agencies and
private sector executives, as well as hands-on AIDS workers and
experts.
Media contacts:
Fred Eckhard Spokesman for the Secretary-General New York office:
(+1 212) 963 7160, e-mail: eckhard@un.org Anne Winter, UNAIDS
Geneva tel: (+41 22) 791 4577, e-mail: wintera@unaids.org
Fatoumata Sow, UNAIDS, in Abuja tel: (234-9) 413 5011
Pragati Pascale, UN Department of Public Information, New York tel:
(+1 212) 963 6870, e-mail: pascale@un.org
Peter Da Costa, ECA, Addis Ababa e-mail: pdacosta@uneca.org; or
dacosta@igc.org (22-28 April, in Abuja)
On the Web: http://www.oau-oua.org, http://www.un.org/News ,
http://www.unaids.org/ , http://www.un.org/ga/aids
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Address to the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other
Infectious Diseases
Abuja, 26 April 2001
Excellencies,
Dear friends,
This is a conference about Africa's future.
The incidence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious
diseases is higher on this continent than on any other.
Of course, this fact is connected to Africa's other problems.
Africans are vulnerable to these diseases because they are poor,
undernourished, and too often uninformed of basic precautions, or
unwilling to take them.
Many are vulnerable because they have neither safe drinking water
nor access to basic health care.
They are vulnerable, in short, because their countries are
underdeveloped.
And therefore the best cure for all these diseases is economic
growth and broad-based development.
We all know that.
But we also know that, in the best of cases, development is going
to take time. And we know that disease, like war, is not only a
product of underdevelopment. It is also one of the biggest
obstacles preventing our societies from developing as they should.
That is especially true of HIV/AIDS, which takes its biggest toll
among young adults - the age group that normally produces most, and
has the main responsibility for rearing the next generation. That
is why AIDS has become not only the primary cause of death on this
continent, but our biggest development challenge. And that is why
I have made the battle against it my personal priority.
In short, my friends, we are here to face a continent-wide
emergency. We cannot afford to treat it as just one aspect of the
battle for development, because it will not wait for us to win that
battle. The cost - whether measured in human misery today, or in
loss of hope for tomorrow - is simply too high. We have to turn and
face it head on.
First, let us be clear what our objectives are. I believe they can
be put very simply, under five headings:
Number One: Prevention.
Our first objective must be to halt and reverse the spread of the
virus - as all world leaders resolved to do at last year's
Millennium Summit - and so to save succeeding generations from this
scourge. Prevention can save many millions of lives, and in several
African countries it has been shown to work.
Everyone who is not yet infected must know what they need to do to
avoid infection. We must give young people the knowledge and power
to protect themselves. We need to inform, inspire and mobilise
them, through an awareness campaign such as the world has never
seen - using radio, television and professional marketing
techniques, as well as more conventional tools of education.
That campaign must reach girls as well as boys. At present, in
sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls are six times more likely to
be infected than boys. That is something which should make all of
us African men deeply ashamed and angry.
And once they know what they need to do, young people must have the
means to do it. That means they must have support from their
families and communities, as well as access to voluntary
counselling and testing and - when appropriate - to condoms.
Number Two: We must prevent the cruellest, most unjust infections
of all - those that pass from mother to child.
All mothers must be able to find out whether they are HIV-positive
or not. And those who are must have access to short-term
anti-retroviral therapy, which has been shown to halve the risk of
transmission. In some cases, the risk can also be reduced by
alternatives to breast-feeding. But these must be approached with
caution, since breast-feeding is the best protection against many
other diseases.
Number Three: we must put Care and Treatment within everyone's
reach.
Even a year ago few people thought that effective treatment could
be brought within reach of poor people in developing countries.
Those already infected with HIV were condemned to be treated like
lepers in earlier times - as people from whom the healthy had to be
protected, but for whom nothing could be done.
Now, however, there has been a world-wide revolt of public opinion.
People no longer accept that the sick and dying, simply because
they are poor, should be denied drugs which have transformed the
lives of others who are better off.
Earlier this month I met the leaders of six of the world's biggest
pharmaceutical companies. They now accept the need to combine
incentives for research with access to medication for the poor.
They are ready to sell drugs to those countries at greatly reduced
prices.
This crisis is so grave that developing countries must face it by
exploiting all options to the full - including the production and
importation of "generic" drugs under licence, within the terms of
international trade agreements.
Everyone who is infected should have access to medicine and medical
care. Now we know that that is possible, it is surely an ethical
imperative. It is also essential to any successful prevention
strategy - because, so long as testing positive is a death sentence
without hope, many people will not even want to know their HIV
status.
In short, we cannot and should not choose between prevention and
treatment. We must do both.
Number Four: we must deliver Scientific Breakthroughs.
We are still a long way from finding a cure for HIV/AIDS, and a
long way from finding a vaccine against it. We must make sure that
the search is given the highest priority in scientific budgets, and
be ready, as soon as it produces results, to make them available
where they are most needed -- not only to those who can afford
them.
And finally, Number Five: we must protect those made most
vulnerable by the epidemic, especially orphans.
Millions of children, because they have lost one or both parents
to AIDS, are growing up malnourished, under-educated, marginalised,
and at risk of being infected themselves. We must break this cycle
of death. And we must not wait for parents to die before we
intervene. We must help them secure their children's future while
they are still fit enough to do so.
Agreeing on those five objectives should not be difficult. But what
are the means we need to achieve those ends?
First of all, we need leadership. And my friends, that must start
with you, the leaders of Africa. Only you can mobilise your
fellow-citizens for this great battle. Only you can give it the
priority in deserves in your national budgets.
Above all, you must take the lead in breaking the wall of silence
and embarrassment that still surrounds this issue in too many
African societies, and in removing the abuse, discrimination and
stigma that still attach to those infected. The epidemic can be
stopped, if people are not afraid to talk about it.
Secondly, we need to involve local communities. It is ultimately
at that level that the battle will be fought and won. It is only
with the fullest support of their families and communities that
young people will be able to change their behaviour and protect
themselves. Above all, we must involve those already living with
HIV-AIDS in the struggle against it.
They, after all, are the ultimate experts.
Thirdly, we need a deep social revolution that will give more power
to women, and transform relations between women and men at all
levels of society. It is only when women can speak up, and have a
full say in decisions affecting their lives, that they will be able
to truly protect themselves - and their children - against HIV.
Fourth, we need stronger healthcare systems. This should be
obvious, but both governments and development agencies often lose
sight of it when setting their budgets and priorities. If our aim
is to make care and treatment available to all those infected, we
need a far more efficient and extensive system of public health
than most African countries even begin to provide at present.
Cheaper anti-retroviral drugs, however vital, will not by
themselves provide the answer. Without proper health care, they may
even do more harm than good - for example, if potentially
life-threatening side effects are not addressed, or if the therapy
is interrupted, leading to drug-resistant forms of HIV. And too
many patients still do not have access even to relatively cheap
antibiotics and other effective drugs for the many illnesses that
prey on their weakened immune systems.
Finally, we need money. The war on AIDS will not be won without a
war chest, of a size far beyond what is available so far.
Money is needed for education and awareness campaigns, for HIV
tests, for condoms, for drugs, for scientific research, to provide
care for orphans, and of course to improve our healthcare systems.
At a minimum, we need to be able to spend an additional
seven-to-ten billion dollars a year on the struggle against
HIV/AIDS in the world as a whole, over an extended period of time.
It sounds a lot, and it is a lot. Somehow we have to bring about a
quantum leap in the scale of resources available. But it is not at
all impossible, given the amount of wealth in the world. In fact it
is little more than one per cent of the world's annual military
spending. We just have to convince those with the power to spend -
public and private donors alike - that this would be money well
spent.
We need to mobilise the widest possible range of donors -- who must
all agree on the same broad objectives -- and we need to win their
commitment for the long haul.
Over the past few weeks and months, there have been several
exciting suggestions for a new fund or funds from a variety of
people -- Governments, private foundations and academics. All these
initiatives must now converge towards a common vision of what we
are trying to achieve.
I propose the creation of a Global Fund, dedicated to the battle
against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. This Fund must be
structured in such a way as to ensure that it responds to the needs
of the affected countries and people. And it must be able to count
on the advice of the best experts in the world - whether they are
found in the United Nations system, in civil society organisations,
or among those who live with HIV/AIDS or are directly affected by
it.
I intend to pursue this idea with all concerned over the next few
weeks, and I hope that in the very near future the Fund will be up
and running.
My dear friends and colleagues,
The ideas I have put to you today are the fruit of extensive
consultations within the United Nations system, with member states,
with philanthropic foundations, with private companies, and with
civil society. I believe we can all agree on them, and that they
can be the foundations of a common strategy.
I certainly hope so, because this battle can be won only if we
mobilise and focus the efforts of a wide range of stakeholders:
national leaders like yourselves, donor governments, the United
Nations system, pharmaceutical and other companies, foundations,
and voluntary groups - especially those that represent people
living with HIV. In other words, we need a complete mobilisation of
society at large.
Everyone has his or her part to play. Let us now lay aside all turf
battles and doctrinal disputes. The battle against HIV/AIDS is far
more important than any one institution or project. Our success
will not be measured by resolutions passed, appointments made, or
even funds raised. It will be measured in the lives of succeeding
generations.
In the last year or so the world has begun to realise that HIV/AIDS
is indeed a world-scale pandemic, which has spread fastest and
furthest in Africa.
So this is a moment of hope, and potentially a turning point.
Africa is no longer being left to face this disaster alone. Its
plight has caught the attention, and the conscience, of the whole
world.
I believe the world is ready to come to our aid. But it will do so
only if we convince the world that we ourselves are making the war
against AIDS our personal priority, and have a clear strategy for
waging it.
In two months' time, delegates from all over the world will gather
in New York for a Special Session of the United Nations General
Assembly on HIV/AIDS. They will draw up a global strategy for the
war against this global scourge, and I hope by then we shall have
firm commitments for our war chest.
Will that strategy respond to the needs of Africa? It depends, in
large part, on the signal that goes out to the world from this
conference. For my part, I promise you the full support of the
United Nations family. Working together, my friends, we can defeat
the scourge of HIV/AIDS. For the sake of Africa's future, we must.
Thank you very much.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by Africa
Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The
Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Africa
Action's information services provide accessible information and
analysis in order to promote U.S. and international policies
toward Africa that advance economic, political and social justice
and the full spectrum of human rights.
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