Canadian NGOs Call on Governments to Address Global Poverty in AIDS Fight

Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, led a panel discussion addressing the urgent need for poverty reduction in the fight against AIDS, today at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

Full details are contained in the release below.

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Canadian non-governmental organizations are calling on national governments and multilateral agencies to recognize and act on the debilitating, reinforcing relationship between food insecurity, poverty and HIV&AIDS.

Organizations including CHF, CARE Canada, Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD), Oxfam Canada and World Vision Canada recommend that the fight against HIV&AIDS needs to be seen in a much larger context: one which includes efforts to improve health, to eradicate poverty and hunger, to improve access to education, to promote gender equality, and to prioritize children in the HIV&AIDS response.

According to Michael O’Connor, Executive Director of ICAD, “The relationship between hunger, poverty and HIV&AIDS in Africa is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Poverty increases vulnerability and puts individuals at greater risk of contracting HIV&AIDS. And if antiretroviral treatments are going to be made universally available by 2010 as promised by G7 leaders last year, hunger and malnutrition need to be addressed.”

The group of NGOs calls on national governments to make the integration of HIV&AIDS and food security a national priority. It also urges multilateral agencies such as UNAIDS and the World Food Programme to support governments in the development and implementation of integrated plans.

“Improving food security and incomes is absolutely essential to building the resilience required to tackle the monumental challenge of HIV&AIDS,” explains Tony Breuer, Executive Director of CHF. “We need to identify and build on existing positive coping strategies and locally available resources. But in order to do this effectively, governments and agencies must increase support for the kind of integrated programming that addresses poverty, hunger and HIV&AIDS, especially for the hardest hit regions such as East and Southern Africa.”

“We must take a comprehensive approach in our response to HIV. Food and income security, gender and HIV all need to be addressed at one time,” adds Michelle Munro, CARE Canada’s Programme Director for HIV&AIDS and Health. “Leaving out any of these dimensions will only increase vulnerability and exacerbate the epidemic.”

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