AIDS strategies must be revisited - UNAIDS

It is time to rethink the strategies used in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, a senior UNAIDS official said on Thursday. Speaking at the ongoing International Conference on AIDS in Africa, UNAIDS Regional Support Department Director Michel Sidibe said this was vital as existing strategies had shown their limitations, particularly in Africa. "There is a multitude of actors and a multitude of sources of funding, but no coordination, meaning that public servants and associations spend more time in their offices writing reports and drawing up funding requests than they do implementing projects on the ground," he said. Sidibe advocated "a more creative approach, more hands-on and more in keeping with cultural reality" for prevention and better coordination between the various roleplayers in the struggle.