NGO PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL AIDS FUND

NGO PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL AIDS FUND

There was no greater threat to individual human security than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, Kingsley Moghalu, Director of Resource Mobilization and Global Partnership, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told correspondents this afternoon at a press briefing on the fifty-sixth Annual DPI/NGO Conference, held at Headquarters this week on the theme “Human Security and Dignity:  Fulfilling the Promise of the United Nations”.

Actor and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador Danny Glover also participated in the press briefing, which was monitored by Paul Hoeffel, Chief, NGO Section of the Department of Public Information (DPI).

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria was the world’s best hope to fight those diseases, Mr. Moghalu said, asking “If that is so, where is the money?”  There were medicines that could prevent HIV/AIDS, “the greatest human catastrophe”, from becoming an immediate death sentence; there were interventions that could cure tuberculosis and means to prevent malaria.  However, there were no resources for people in the developing world to afford medicine for HIV/AIDS, insecticides to prevent malaria or interventions against tuberculosis.  That was why civil society and the United Nations in 2001 had established the Fund to raise money in the fight against the three pandemics.

So far, the Fund had attracted pledges of $4.7 billion, which was nowhere near the projected $15 billion needed annually to fight the diseases effectively, he continued.  The Fund had committed $1.5 billion to 150 programmes in 92 countries.  Those programmes were financing the purchase of anti-retrovirals for half a million people, 14 million insecticide-prepared malaria nets, and education and counselling for half a million AIDS-orphans.

Danny Glover said the NGO community, which played a typical role in directing resources to those who were most in need, had come to the Conference with heavy hearts.  They had questions not only about human security and dignity -- the Conference’s theme -- but also about sustaining their own operations and sustaining some level of health for those in need.  He hoped the Conference would provide a new direction and new partnerships between the United Nations family and civil society.  Those partnerships had to be based on recognition of the importance NGOs played in civil society.

This afternoon, Mr. Glover, who also had been active in the fight against apartheid, would moderate a panel on the theme “From Oppression to Empowerment”.  The panel would hear from many men and women who had lived under oppressive conditions or had been part of liberation movements.  It would also address the question of what real empowerment meant, and how effective it could be in bringing changes to communities and societies.  Non-governmental organizations were necessary now more than ever, he said in conclusion.  Their potential had to be realized and ensured.

Asked about the role college-age youths could play in educating people, Mr. Moghalu said a lot of prevention programmes, called “behavioural change communication programmes”, were targeted at youths, since HIV/AIDS hit mostly the young.  The Fund financed a lot of those programmes in the developing countries.  Young people in the developing world could urge behavioural change among their peers and establish youth networks around the world to exchange ideas on how to fight AIDS.  They also could assist in fund-raising.

Mr. Glover said the role of youths in the United Nations Working Committee Against HIV/AIDS had been most pronounced.  Some programmes, specifically targeted at youth and the youth culture, for instance the South African “loveLife” organization, had been most effective.  The issue now was how to replicate those programmes in other places and how to support them.

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