ACTION: Organizational Sign On: Make AIDS History platform

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ACTION: ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ON

Below is the

final “Make AIDS History” platform with the initial signatories

Please

circulate it for endorsement.

Please forward

organizational endorsements to asia@...g

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The G8 Must Take Action to Make AIDS History

We, the

undersigned organizations, call on leaders of the G8 nations to make

good on

their existing promises and to commit additional resources to make

AIDS,

tuberculosis and malaria history through commitments on these key

issues:

FUNDING THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS

G8 countries

have endorsed funding for a Global AIDS Vaccine Enterprise, and

are debating

mechanisms to increase overall donor aid, such as the

International

Finance Facility (IFF). But a G8 focus on vaccine research and

development

with no commitment to closing the massive funding gap is

unacceptable.

Likewise, discussion of a mechanism for increasing donor aid

is not a

substitute for immediate increases in donor country spending in

order to

fully fund the fight against AIDS, and address the needs of the 40

million

people living with HIV around the world.

G8 leaders

must:

€

Immediately provide the funding needed to meet the goals of the WHO-led

campaign to

treat 3 million of the estimated 6 million HIV-positive people

who are in

urgent clinical need of HIV treatment by 2005 (³3 by 5²).

€ Increase

funding for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,

including

palliative care, to reach a total of at least $12 billion in 2005

and at least

$19.9 billion by 2007. Provide an additional $6 billion

annually to

fund the fight against tuberculosis and malaria and $4.4 billion

to address

the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan

Africa.

€ Fully fund

the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) and

commit to

predictable annual financing based on donor country income and the

GFATM's

need. The GFATM requires more than $2.3 billion in 2005 and $3.4

billion in

2006 to finance grant rounds five and six, as well as grant

renewals.

DEBT CANCELLATION TO FIGHT AIDS

The massive

external debts owed by poor countries are greatly hindering the

fight

against HIV/AIDS. Billions of dollars are redirected to servicing

debts, when

these funds should be used to focus on urgent domestic issues,

including

addressing the AIDS crisis.

G8 leaders

must:

€ Immediately

commit to 100% cancellation of the debts owed to the IMF and

World Bank

for all impoverished countries, without harmful or externally

imposed

economic conditions. Cancellation should be financed through the use

of IMF gold

reserves. As necessary, World Bank accumulated profits, provided

that these

do not penalize other developing countries, and additional

voluntary

contributions from wealthy countries should be considered for

financing

debt cancellation.

€ The funding

freed up from cancelled debt must be additional to donor

funding

needed to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

HIV/AIDS TREATMENT AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES

Lack of

access to HIV treatment and care results in 8500 deaths each day

worldwide.

G8 countries must lead the world¹s response to this catastrophe.

G8 leaders

must:

€ Ensure the

treatment targets of the " 3x5 " campaign are met: 3 million

people on

treatment by the end of 2005.

€ Commit to

a timetable for expanding access to HIV/AIDS care in order to

achieve

universal access to free treatment by 2010.

€ At

minimum, change existing and pending bilateral and regional Free Trade

Agreements

to comply with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and

Public

Health to ensure that such agreements protect public health and

promote

access to medicines for all.

€ Urge

developing countries to use all available flexibilities to protect

public

health and promote access to medicines for all as reaffirmed by the

Doha Declaration on the

TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.

SUPPORT FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS

An immediate

obstacle preventing the scale up of access to HIV treatment, as

well as

tuberculosis and malaria, is the lack of trained health care workers

in

developing countries, particularly in African countries.

G8 leaders

must:

€ Commit

sufficient resources, including funding for salary support and

other

recurrent costs, to ensure recruitment and retention of an adequate

number of

trained health care workers to deliver essential health

interventions,

including HIV prevention, treatment and care to all who need

it,

especially in remote and rural areas. Community-based approaches to

health care

delivery, led by women and men living with HIV/AIDS and their

peers,

should be given particular support and attention.

€ Provide

long-term investments to develop sufficient education capacity in

developing

countries to train needed numbers of health care workers,

particularly

to meet needs in remote and rural areas.

€ Change the

macroeconomic policies promoted by the IMF to ensure that IMF

policies

enable countries to allocate adequate funds to develop health

systems

necessary to recruit, train, and retain health workers, including

through

providing sufficient retention packages.

HIV PREVENTION

Comprehensive,

accurate, science-based HIV prevention saves lives and should

work in

conjunction with treatment scale up efforts.

G8 leaders

must:

€ Support

comprehensive HIV prevention interventions that are driven by

scientific

evidence and best practice, not ideology. End attacks on

prevention

interventions that are effective in fighting HIV, such as condom

use and

access to sterile syringes.

€ Stop

pitting funding and other support for HIV prevention against funding

and support

for HIV treatment. The success of the fight against the AIDS

pandemic is

dependent upon a massive scale up of both prevention and

treatment

efforts.

Signed by:

<list in

formation>

Action Against

AIDS, Germany

Action AID

International

Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), UK

Africa Action, USA

Africa Japan Forum, Japan

AIDES, France

AIDS Saint , Canada

Canadian

HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canada

Christian

Aid, UK

European

AIDS Treatment Group, Belgium

Global AIDS Alliance, USA

Global Network

of People with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), Europe

Grupo de

Trabajo sobre Tratamientos del VIH, Spain

Health GAP

(Global Access Project), USA

Healthpartners, Kenya

Help the

Hospices, UK

Interagency

Coalition on AIDS and Development, Canada

Massive

Effort Campaign, Switzerland

Oxfam

International

People and Planet, UK

Physicians

for Human Rights, USA

Stop AIDS Campaign, UK

Student

Global AIDS Campaign, USA

Students Against

Global AIDS, Canada

Students

Partnership Worldwide, UK

Treatment

Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa

UK Coalition of People

Living with HIV and AIDS, UK

Volunteer

Services International (VSO). UK