G8 2007: Civil society demands Prime Minister Harper keep the promise on universal access to treatment, prevention and care
Canadian NGO's send a joint letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding his government keeps the promise to universal access to AIDS treatment, prevention and care.
Dear Prime Minister Harper
Re: G8 2007: Civil society demands you keep the promise on universal access to treatment, prevention and care
We write as the Global Treatment Access Group (GTAG), representing Canadian international development, human rights, humanitarian, and AIDS service organizations, trade unions, student groups and faith-based organizations working to address the interlinked challenges of HIV/AIDS and poverty. We join global coalitions of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS and civil society organizations in this call to the G8 leaders.
We welcome the G8's and Canada's commitment to ensure that AIDS is high on the G8 agenda, in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We believe the 2007 G8 Summit is a historic opportunity to deliver on the commitment made at Gleneagles in 2005 to strive for universal access to AIDS treatment, prevention and care by 2010. It is two years since the G8 set this ambitious target, but the additional funds needed to achieve this goal have still not been identified or made available to scale up the world's response against AIDS.
We are gravely concerned that with only three years to 2010, the G8 is on the brink of betraying this bold promise. For example, at the current rate of AIDS treatment scale-up, fewer than half of all people in urgent need of treatment by 2010 will receive it. New HIV infections are growing, infections continue to rise among women, and worldwide only 12% of people who want to be tested for HIV are able to do so. Fewer than 10% of children affected by AIDS receive any support. We must ensure that "as close as possible" to universal access is not misinterpreted as resigning ourselves to non-delivery and failure.
In this letter we outline our main reasons for concern and call upon Canada's government to take specific actions before the end of 2007.
UNAIDS estimates that the global AIDS response needs $20-23 billion per year. Current commitments are $8 billion short for 2007, and this rises to a $10 billion shortfall annually for 2008-2010. G8 leaders should deliver a funding plan for achieving universal access to prevention, care treatment and support by 2010. This should include specific resource commitments based on fair share contributions and ensure additional, predictable and sustainable funding through bilateral, civil society and multilateral mechanisms – in particular the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
As leaders in the international response to AIDS, the G8 nations need to attach clear global targets to universal access goals. This should include a pledge to provide treatment to 9.8 million people by 2010. Canada should push for these global targets at the G8 and should set clear targets for scaling up its own commitments.
In June 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS at the United Nations, countries committed to providing targets linked to costed national plans for key HIV and AIDS interventions by December 2006. Of more than 100 countries, only 26 have submitted these plans so far. The G8 needs to encourage and support all countries to submit fully costed national plans by June 30, 2007.
National plans for achieving universal access are supposed to include and be open to scrutiny from civil society, but some national AIDS authorities have sidelined independent civil society. The quest for harmonization under "the three ones" has contributed to the silencing of any critical voices. We call for your commitment to supporting independent civil society voices able to hold leaders, particularly in countries most affected by AIDS, to account.
Implementation and delivery is where commitments are stalling and so we believe there is a need to create a high-level working group that reports to the G8 on progress in securing the universal access goal.
We urge you to advance the above concerns and actions at the upcoming G8 Summit. In addition, Canada needs to make its own, clear commitments to contributing to achieving universal access. In particular, as Canadians we call on Canada's government, in particular, to:
* Pay our fair share of prevention, treatment and care in developing countries
* Invest in the public health care systems of developing countries
* Cancel the debts of developing countries to free up resources to fight AIDS and poverty
* Follow through on commitments to make medicines affordable to developing countries
These points are reflected in The Global AIDS Crisis: Four Steps for Canada, the four-point action plan we released last year to highlight what Canada, as host of the 2006 International AIDS Conference, can and should do to play its part in the global fight against AIDS. As you know, that call to action has been widely endorsed by a broad cross-section of civil society, and by thousands and thousands of individual Canadians; action on these fronts will continue to be central to our efforts in strengthening Canada's response to this pandemic. Canada should make specific commitments on each of these fronts at the upcoming G8 Summit, demonstrating that Canada is contributing to reaching the universal access goal.
The lives of millions depend on our joint efforts to make universal access a reality. Your commitment and leadership can help ensure that all heads of state keep their promises on universal access.
Yours sincerely,
GTAG members
Canadian Crossroad International
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief
Canadian Society for International Health
CARE Canada
Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
McGill Global AIDS Coalition
McGill Human Rights Working Group
Oxfam Canada
People's Health Movement Canada
Plan Canada
More information
University of Toronto's report on the G8 compliance to commitments