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About
the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa
Commission
on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA)
July 19, 2004
http://www.uneca.org/chga/about.htm
In February
2003, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced
his intention to establish the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance
in Africa (CHGA). Under the Chairmanship of the Executive Secretary
of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), CHGA represents the
first occasion on which the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS
will lead an effort to examine the epidemic in all its aspects and
likely future implications. The work of the Commission will last
for two years and be guided by twenty-one Commissioners who bring
considerable experience and expertise to the issue from diverse
perspectives. The specific mandate of the Commission is to complement
the vital work on transmission and prevention being done by UN and
other agencies, with a rigorous agenda that charts the way forward
on HIV/AIDS and governance in Africa in three crucially interrelated
areas:
(a) The implications
of sustained human capacity losses for the maintenance of state
structures and economic development;
(b) The viability
(technical, fiscal and structural) of utilizing anti-retroviral
(ARV) medication as an instrument of mitigation; and
(c) In partnership
with UN and other agencies, synthesizing best practices in HIV/AIDS
and governance in key development areas with a view to formulating
policy recommendations.
The strategic
aims of CHGA are:
(a) To assess
the complex and long-term implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
on government capacity and economic development in Africa, and to
make African governments, their citizens, and their international
partners fully aware of the scale, gravity and nature of this threat;
(b) To mobilize
political will amongst African governments, regional and international
organizations, civil society, business and other stakeholders in
support of adopting the necessary policy and programme measures
in the fields of human resource capacity planning and scaling up
treatment.
The Challenge
for CHGA
The
timing of the CHGA is auspicious for two reasons: first,
for the first time in the history of this two-decade old epidemic,
despair over unmitigated mass human suffering is giving way to hope
over the possibility of feasible AIDS care. Yet, the evidence base
for effective action in Africa is meager. Indiscriminate drug use,
ineffective care, and lack of trained personnel are all real threats
on a continent without a strong health care infrastructure or a
regulatory environment. In the African context of limited resources
and huge unmet demands for HIV care, efficient programmes clearly
necessitate that mitigation strategies be properly delivered through
organized channels; this implies a committed involvement from governments.
Second, with HIV seropositivity levels reaching 35 per cent
in several southern African states, and with the epidemic showing
scant signs of slowing, it has become impossible for even the most
detached governments to deny that this is a problem of unprecedented
proportions. Their ability to maintain critical state structures
in the face of declining life expectancy and increasing mortality
is significantly undermined.
Their ability
to respond, however, will largely depend on three interrelated factors:
(a) Their understanding
of the long-term development challenges posed by HIV/AIDS and the
related costs - both social and economic - of inactivity;
(b) Their capacity
to devise and cost appropriate policies and programmes for mitigating
the development impacts of HIV/AIDS; and
(c) Their ability
to marshal adequate and sustained resources to support these policies
and programmes.
The challenge
for CHGA is to clarify the nature of the choices facing African
governments today, and to help consolidate the design and implementation
of policies and programmes that can help contain the pandemic whilst
maintaining development and good governance. The Commission will
address gaps in responses to HIV/AIDS and knowledge of its wider
impacts. It focuses on the challenge of governing a country - including
maintaining essential public services, keeping economic development
on track, maintaining rural livelihoods, tackling the gender dimension
of the epidemic, and ensuring national security - despite the fact
that large numbers of adults are living with HIV and AIDS.
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