African Leaders Meet in Nigeria on AIDS

January 16, 2006

01.16.2006

African heads of state are to meet in Nigeria in May to review the

gains and the strategies of HIV and AIDS on the continent.

This is a follow-up to the 14th International Conference on AIDS and

Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), which Nigeria

hosted in 2005, according to Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin.

Osotimehin, chairman of National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), said

at a NAN forum at the weekend that the summit would enable countries

to assess levels of implementation of recommendations made at the

conference and plan for the way forward.

While commending the efforts of the organisers of the international

conference, he said that a lot of progress had been made.

He said until 2005, Nigeria had not hosted the yearly conference

partly due to the perception of the country by outsiders especially

during the military era.

``There is the need to follow the success made and monitor the

implementation of recommendations made, which the ``May 2006 heads

of states summit is set to do,'' he said.

Osotimehin asked African leaders to provide funds independent of

donors to sustain the fight against the pandemic.

He said last year's tsunami in South East Asia revealed what could

happen to such funds in the event of more disasters.

``If there are five tsunamis, you can imagine what will happen to AIDS

funds from the donors,'' he said.

He said that budgets for such funds by the donor countries remained

the same every year while the donor was at liberty to decide where to

put the money.

Osotimehin said African leaders needed to be alerted on this so that

gains already made would not be lost in the face of dwindling donor funds.

He cited Brazil which had overcome the problem of treatment, saying

the country totally funds its anti-retroviral programme for people

living the HIV and AIDS.

He dismissed insinuations that some African countries were rich enough

to fund their HIV and AIDS campaigns, explainingthat poverty on the

continent was endemic.

Osotimehin said that even with Nigeria's oil wealth, its external

reserve was equivalent to the endowments of one university in the U.S.

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