Share & more
Middle East and North African (MENA) countries have an "unprecedented" opportunity to help the international community in securing resources for efforts against HIV/AIDS, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a Global Fund meeting in Morocco on Wednesday.
In a message delivered by UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, Annan lamented the spread of HIV in the region, citing UN statistics, which indicate that 67,000 new infections were expected in the Middle East and North Africa this year.
"I call on the region's governments not only to review their domestic budgets devoted to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but also to assess how their overseas development assistance can be mobilised to meet the global challenge posed by AIDS and other development issues," Annan said.
The Secretary-General hoped delegates would grasp the opportunity to marshal the political commitment needed to tackle the pandemic, and, in particular, to confront the stigma, denial and discrimination that fuelled the spread of HIV.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions