Today's Date:

It is estimated that between 7 and 10 billion dollars a year are needed for the fight against HIV/AIDS worldwide. This is a considerable sum, of an altogether different order from what we are spending today!

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International aid must, as a priority, go to supporting the health systems of the countries of the South: this is one of the essential elements in the fight against AIDS and why we believe that the European Development Fund must be more boldly committed to doing this. There needs, of course, to be discussion between the ACP and European countries in order to see exactly how we can use the EDF more effectively in the battle against AIDS. We will be proposing to the forthcoming Belgian European Union presidency that it organize such a discussion. The ACP Joint Assembly could contribute to it.

Last but not least: the creation of a global AIDS and health fund, such as that proposed by the Secretary-General. The discussions must address its structure, eligible programmes and their implementation.

My government supports the creation of a sui generis fund which would not be a United Nations fund but in which its specialized agencies will play a major role.

The purpose of this fund, open to public and private finance, will be to help finance the fight against the three communicable diseases (AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) covering care, treatment and prevention. This point is essential - my country has pleaded for years for access to care for patients in the South.

The structure must be as slim as possible, involving of course the recipient countries and, in ways yet to be defined, associations of people living with HIV.

But above all the fund must be able to mobilize rapidly the funds at its disposal using a wide range of agencies: NGOs in the North and South and local authorities. The selected projects should not be confined to national ones sponsored by the recipient countries, even though compatibility with national scientific schemes must always be sought.

Finally, I would remind you that, in order to fight HIV/AIDS, my government has pledged to contribute EUR 150 million to this fund.

We also have to consider how to ensure the continuity of the funding, as the battle will be a long one./.