Statement by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme on the Occasion of World AIDS Day
As
we pause to mark the twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day, there is some positive news. The newly released 2008 Report
on the Global AIDS Epidemic indicates a drop in HIV infection rates in several countries around the world. This news should
both rekindle hope and re-energize our actions. We should, however, guard against any complacency; the same report notes
that despite progress in some countries, in others infection rates are still rising.
The theme for today’s World
AIDS Day Campaign is ‘Lead – Empower – Deliver’, aimed at renewing the focus on the need for universal access to HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support services.
Although we have made substantial progress over the past two decades in fighting
the stigma surrounding AIDS, we have much further to travel before we can say with conviction that people affected by HIV
benefit from full rights and protections.
Working with other UN agencies as a co-sponsor of the Joint UN Programme
on AIDS (UNAIDS), UNDP has special responsibility for addressing the connections among HIV, poverty and development, as well
as advancing human rights and gender equality. UNDP tries to achieve this in a variety of ways around the world. For example,
because the spread of HIV is fueled by human rights violations and by discrimination against women, men who have sex with
men, people who inject drugs, and sex workers, UNDP helps countries to enact and enforce laws to protect the rights of these
groups.
In addition, recognizing the role parliamentarians play in setting and enforcing new laws and jettisoning
old prejudices, UNDP has collaborated with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the UNAIDS Secretariat to produce a handbook
for parliamentarians that provides guidance on the vital role they can play in responding to the epidemic.
UNDP
recognizes that no poverty reduction strategy is complete without addressing HIV; the loss of parents and productive citizens
not only affects their immediate families, but schools, governments, agriculture and other productive sectors of societies.
In the most affected countries, the impact of AIDS can undermine national economies and considerably reduces average life
expectancy. Costly treatment, absenteeism and mortality, heavily concentrated among working age adults, have a direct socio-economic
impact. Seeking to address this, UNDP has assisted 25 countries to integrate responses to AIDS into poverty reduction strategies
and national development plans.
Tackling this epidemic remains a top priority for UNDP. With strong leadership,
by empowering people living with HIV, and by delivering on the promises that have already been made, there is real hope that
we can turn the tide against AIDS.
