PEPFAR- The Challenge of HIV Prevention

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS and HIV International (HIVI) jointly organised a meeting on PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The meeting was held on the 26th April 2006 in the House of Commons. The meeting was co-chaired by Neil Gerrard MP, Chair of the APPG AIDS, and by Anton Kerr, Chair of HIVI.

The theme of the meeting was

2010 Universal HIV Access Target – The Challenge of HIV Prevention

The UK government has shown leadership in its commitment to addressing the global HIV epidemic – as can be seen in its strong support for the G8 Commitment to Universal Access to HIV services; support for greater international coordination in response to the epidemic as well as the role played by the UK Government in Co-Chairing with UNAIDS the Global Steering Committee that has been tasked with developing the roadmap to Universal Access to HIV services by 2010.

Protecting and promoting united, evidence-informed and rights-based HIV prevention policies represents a key challenge for the UK’s ambition to fight HIV/AIDS in middle income and developing countries. This challenge is illustrated by the contrast between the UK and EU’s HIV prevention policies and those of the US. The US approach to tackling HIV/AIDS was explored in this meeting.

Neil Gerrard MP opened the meeting by advertising that both the Department for International Development (DFID) and the American Embassy had been invited to address the meeting. Unfortunately these offers were refused.

Peter Gill, journalist and author of Body Count – How they turned AIDS into a catastrophe, spoke about his experiences of reporting from Africa for many years and from researching his book. Highly critical to PEPFAR and American promotion of abstinence from sex before marriage and the main prevention action to stop the AIDS pandemic Peter Gill spoke about the problems that people in many countries are facing today. Access to condoms and to balanced information is scare in countries where the US is a major donor. Morality pledges of not having sex before marriage and staying faithful once married can reduce the rate of infections but not as efficiently as a joint ABC approach (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use a Condom). Peter Gill argued that in countries where only A is promoted the lack of awareness of B and C can be detrimental to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of Change, told the meeting that her organization monitors US money and policy spent on international work on sexual health. Jodi Jacobson said that there is little correlation between the message (Say No to Sex) and the social and economic realities in places like Sub-Saharan Africa where 80% of HIV transmission comes from sex. The gender disparity in this region is very high – 60% of infected people are women. This is the group for whom saying no to sex is not as straight forward as the American message would let on. Women often become infected by their husbands whom they feel they cannot deny sex. Jodi Jacobson also commented on the fact that PEFAR largely ignores messages and responses from civil society.

Beatrice Were from Human Rights activist and representative of Action Aid Uganda told the meeting about the changes that PEPFAR had brought to Uganda. Once a country held up for its success in challenging the pandemic the politics have changes with the onset of PEPFAR work in the Country. Condoms are left sitting in warehouses as they are prevented from being distributed. Beatrice Were said that this was because of the distorted leaning towards A as opposed to a balanced approach to AB and C. Beatrice Were also said that in the current climate various religious groups and individuals were gaining a lot of access to the media and further stigmatizing people living with HIV/AIDS.

Return to Meetings Page                                        Return to top