15 November 2005:

Unite for Children, Unite Against Aids.

Attendance List

Parliamentarians - Malcolm Moss MP, Adam Hewitt MP, Kenneth Clarke MP, Lord Brett, Lord Chan, Nigel Evans MP, Adam Holloway MP, Baroness Howe

Other - Julia Fahrmann, UNICEF UK, Sara Hashash, Guy Robinson pp Nick Herbert MP, Jennifer Porter, Marzieh Asgari-Targhi, Penny Jackson, Robert Rams, Naomi Scherbet-Ball, Sarah Mace, Feyi Rodway, Megan Hammill, Alison Linsey, Zoe Renton, Kate Riley, Julia Baxter, Wendy Tabuteau, Ian Buist, Şenay Camgöz, UNICEF UK, Clare Makepeace, UNICEF UK

Minutes

Baroness Whitaker – the role of private business was touched on in the presentation, but this is an important issue. Businesses have an interest in tackling the problem of AIDS as it affects their workforce and their present and future consumers. Some businesses in South Africa have set up their own projects, but is enough being done to get businesses involved? Could the DTI play a role here? UNICEF UK agreed that there is huge potential for companies to become involved. We would be keen to work with the DTI on this.

Baroness Tonge had reservations about the $55bn figure. Is the figure meant to cover the cost of building the necessary health infrastructure and enforcing patient compliance with drug courses? Drugs will not be taken properly because when they are taken without food they lead to nausea. This could lead to people becoming resistant to the drugs and so could make the problem even worse than it is already. UNICEF UK explained that UNICEF would be responsible for raising $1billion of that amount. UNICEF UK agreed to provide Baroness Tonge with more information on this.

Ken Clarke MP asked what the extra $1bn that UNICEF aims to raise will be spent on. He felt that there is a risk that the money will be spent on conferences and bureaucracy and will not actually make a difference. UNICEF UK said that the money would be spent on capacity building in countries that have been hardest hit by HIV/AIDS.

What is UNICEF’s position on the fact that US money is only available for campaigns that promote abstinence? Different governments vary in their approach to safe sex. UNICEF always promotes the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms) approach.

Adam Holloway MP said that more money is only part of the solution, but without building an infra-structure nothing will be achieved. He added that in the last 12 years 70 per cent of the nurses in some hospitals in Swaziland have moved to the UK and are now employed by the NHS. UNICEF’s campaign also addresses this issue.

Baroness Northover said that Merck and Gates are both very active in Botswana and invest huge sums of money into projects there. Why have they not stepped in to fund Emmanuel’s project? UNICEF UK replied that the funding for Emmanuel’s project was only withdrawn last week and agreed to get back to her with more information on this particular case.

Ian Buist felt that UNICEF’s campaign should also take account of women who contract HIV in ignorance and orphans who need help in securing their own assets. Children need to be participants in, rather than just the subjects of, the attempts to tackle the problems.

He also felt that it would be hypocritical to call for comprehensive sex education in other countries when we do not even have it in this country, as parents have the right to remove their children from these classes. UNICEF UK responded that calling on the UK government to make sex and relationship education a compulsory part of the national curriculum is part of their Children and AIDS campaign.

What opposition has the Botswana Urban Youth Project faced from the Church?

Emmanuel responded that in its services the Church preaches about abstinence and faithfulness only, but outside of these formal settings religious leaders are willing to meet with peer workers to discuss other methods of prevention of transmission, such as the use of condoms.

Jennifer Porter, Secretary to Lord Griffiths pointed out that the Church in Botswana has no problem with condoms. 

Lord Brett said that no mention has been made of the word ‘culture,’ but it is the key. For example, there are problems with men being willing to use condoms outside of the family but not within it.

Adrian Hewitt, ODI said that AIDS is causing a huge strain on the budgets of effected countries as a whole generation threatens to be wiped out and people are retiring through illness and drawing a pension.