Plans announced for innovative AIDS think-tank

Nigeria and UNAIDS have signed an agreement for the establishment of an Africa Centre for AIDS Management. According to the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), the purpose of the think-tank is to ensure that all Nigerians have access to information, skills, services, care and support by 2010. "This is the first on the continent, and with its establishment we will be more focused in tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic," NACA chairman Babatunde Osotimehin told the News Agency of Nigeria. The initiative is a spin-off from the universal access concept, which UN member countries established in 2001 to allow nations more control over their development programmes, particularly in curbing the spread of the pandemic.