On Tuesday, countries including Pakistan, Cameroon, Ghana, Swaziland, Brazil, Mexico and Moxambique presented their national targets to achieve universal access to prevention, care and treatment by 2010. Susie Mclean, senior policy adviser at the Alliance, was at the small meeting where national AIDS committees and ministers for health presented their targets. All spoke of the involvement of civil society in developing the targets but, cautioned Susie, it remains to be seen the true extent of this involvement.
However, resources continue to be an issue in achieving targets. "Representatives from Ghana made an interesting point," said Susie. "Because they had involved civil society, and because they had made the targets aspirational rather than 'business as usual', there are now much higher expectations and not enough resources to deliver."
"This is a reminder that there are still big resource gaps. The UK Department for International Development has said that no national AIDS plan will go unfunded. This is an opportunity to prove that. Donors must now provide the resources needed to implement the targets." It is still unclear how or when the national targets that have now been developed are to be published.
Representatives from Alliance organisations around the world also met on Tuesday morning with a high level UNAIDS representative to discuss Alliance input into development of targets in a further 20 countries over the next three months. A key issue raised was how to ensure meaningful involvement of civil society. There was also a recommendation that once targets have been set there needs to be a review mechanism to ensure their quality.
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