New US regional AIDS effort

United States government envoys in 10 Southern African nations this week launched a new initiative to help bring improved American assistance in the campaign against HIV/AIDS. The US ambassador in Zimbabwe, Tom McDonald, told IRIN Wednesday that he had hosted a meeting at his embassy this week with the American ambassadors to Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia, as well as the directors of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) USAID staff from Washington. “The meeting arose from the fact that a number of us believe there is no more critical issue than the spread of AIDS,” he said. “HIV/AIDS is an overriding crisis that cuts across all aspects of society and government.” Specialists at the two-day conference gave a breakdown of the regional HIV/AIDS pandemic, President Clinton’s new funding initiative against the disease, and discussed ways how America could share ideas and provide better assistance in the region. “It is not all about spending more money - advocacy is critical. We must also engage heads of state and other key leaders in both the public and private sectors in our host countries do more and say more about the HIV/AIDS crisis,” the ambassador said.