PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNAIDS, ADMINISTRATOR OF UNDP AND PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNAIDS, ADMINISTRATOR OF UNDP AND PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK

Following their speeches to the Security Council, which met today to discuss the impact of AIDS on peace and security in Africa, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and James Wolfensohn, President of The World Bank, held a press briefing for correspondents.

The Security Council meeting was historical on several levels, Mr. Brown said. It was not only the first time the Council had dealt with a health issue but a development issue as well. It was also the first time that the UNDP Administrator and the President of the World Bank had spoken before the Council. “It is a striking affirmation that in the first meeting of the Security Council of the new millennium, this represents a shift in direction which we hope will be confirmed by the success of today’s session”, he said.

Mr. Wolfensohn said that the AIDS crisis and its underlying issues of development and poverty were the cornerstones of what made security possible. People in poverty and without hope were more likely to create problems, while if people had opportunities and the prospect of good health and development and chances for their children, there was generally peace. In addressing wars and conflicts and threats to peace and security, the Security Council also needed to deal with the causes of war and the causes of threats. “And so it is very sensible that the Security Council take up the subject of AIDS, which is eroding Africa more than any other single issue”, he said.

“We are not powerless -- action makes a difference”, Dr. Piot told correspondents. There were countries and communities that had at least partly overcome AIDS. However, the resources made available for fighting AIDS were insufficient, he said, adding that it was not simply a matter of lack of funds from donor countries. For example, in 1997 -- the latest year for which figures were available -- $165 million had been spent on AIDS prevention in Africa –- $150 million from the international community and $15 million from African governments. Those amounts were clearly insufficient on both sides, Dr. Piot said, estimating that over $1 billion a year was needed to stop the epidemic.

“We are in a time of incredible opportunity, with African leaders speaking up, evidence of success, new technologies and interest at the highest level in the richer countries. We cannot continue with business as usual, as we have been doing for many years despite the growing epidemic”, he said.

Mr. Brown cited the Security Council speech by the Health Minister of Namibia who had joined with others in stressing that the AIDS issue was not just a case of generating appropriate international resources, but also of the need to change behaviours and attitudes. That was why the Security Council meeting was so special; it brought both sides of the discussion together and allowed both dimensions to be addressed. “It was extraordinary to hear that kind of conservation in that Chamber”, he added.

AIDS Briefing - 2 - 10 January 2000

A correspondent said the United States Government had been putting “massive pressure” on the Government of South Africa not to exercise its rights under the World Trade Organization to license low-cost HIV drugs. Only after ACT UP demonstrators had begun to appear at United States Vice-President Al Gore’s campaign rallies had the United States dropped the threat of sanctions, he said, asking for an opinion on the sincerity of what he referred to as the “new rhetoric” from the United States as exhibited in the Council meeting.

Mr. Brown said the pharmaceutical industry was becoming part of the solution and not part of the problem. He gave as an example the partnership between a pharmaceutical company and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to make available drugs which blocked HIV transmission from mother to child. Public policy always involved a clash of a variety of interests.

“Our interest is to push for the pharmaceutical industry to get as engaged as possible, to lower the costs of treatment, to be pressed by every form of pressure available, from a Security Council meeting to ACT UP demonstrations, to move toward as much low-cost treatment as possible”, he said. He added that the trend towards mobilization of concerned people to press political leaders in the West and the international pharmaceutical industry to do more was something to be applauded.

Dr. Piot added that the added value of the Security Council meeting would be to bring the issue of AIDS to the public agenda and to ensure that a proactive dialogue took place.

Asked if he would have liked to hear anything more from the United States in its speech and whether countries were moving too slowly concerning money, Dr. Piot said in terms of overall investments in AIDS projects in the developing world, the United States was the largest investor. The European countries on the bilateral side were also providing a similar amount. The United States had been the first country to treble its funding for international AIDS activities.

Mr. Wolfensohn added that in April, the Bank would have a Development Committee meeting with Finance Ministers to discuss the levels of funding. The United States lead would be very useful, he said.

Asked about the level of participation by private companies, Dr. Piot said there were few investments at the global level. His organization was supporting the setting up of national business councils against AIDS. Concerning pharmaceutical companies, he said Bristol-Myers Squibb had earmarked $100 million for five countries in southern Africa, and Glaxo Wellcome had announced preferential pricing that would allow lower prices in lower income countries.

Another correspondent asked how UNAIDS intended to ensure implementation of its programmes. Also, after Africa, where next? Dr. Piot said there was no question that the political will necessary existed in countries where there was peace. In African countries where there was still armed conflict, a different strategy was needed, as those countries could be a driving force in the spread of the epidemic.

As to the second part of the question, Dr. Piot said India had the largest number of infected people in the world.

AIDS Briefing - 3 - 10 January 2000

Mr. Wolfensohn said that getting the subject on the agenda for discussion, however, had proven to be very difficult culturally. “Our first major loan of $86 million took quite a number of years before we could get it spent because of the lack of willingness of state and federal authorities but that seems to be changing now”, he said. Indian leadership was now talking more about issues related to AIDS.

A correspondent who spoke of the “danger to businesses and investments of exaggerating”, asked how the Organization had arrived at its figure of 2 million deaths last year from AIDS. Dr. Piot said it was likely the figure was an underestimation. With no other health problem were the figures so accurate, which did not mean, however, that they were accurate to the last digit.

In terms of the impact on business, Mr. Brown said AIDS was one of the illnesses where “perhaps a little like violence, there is an interim stage to full acknowledgement of the problem in which you say it is bad for business to face up to the problem. But then very quickly you determine that it is a sight better to face up to it and to show you are addressing it.”

* *** *