PRESS
RELEASE
19 November 2001
LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES REQUEST EQUITABLE
REGIONAL REPRESENTATION IN THE NEW FUND TO FIGHT
AIDS, TB AND MALARIA
Governments and NGOs bring country perspective to the Fund’s
design
SÃO
PAOLO, 19 November – Future representation in the Fund’s Executive
Board has to include a large representation of recipient countries
comprising all regions of the world, NGOs and people living
with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, according to participants
in a two-day meeting in São Paolo.
Delegates
from around 21 countries and more than 10 representatives
from NGO networks from Latin America and the Caribbean gathered
together on Sunday and Monday, 18-19 November, to discuss
how the new Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
should be designed to best meet country needs.
"The
Caribbean are among the regions with the highest AIDS prevalence
in the world and the people affected suffer from stigmatization
and discrimination. We need to find ways of building trust.
As a new partnership, which includes all stakeholders, the
Fund will be an important step in this direction. It
will help to build trust between governments and NGOs,"
said Carole Allison Senah, Deputy Director of Health Promotion
of the Ministry of Health in Trinidad & Tobago.
This
consultation, sponsored by the governments of Brazil, Trinidad
& Tobago, and UNAIDS, is one of a series of consultation
meetings being arranged to garner the input and relevant insight
of representatives from stakeholders crucial to the implementation
of the Fund. Other meetings are being held with delegations
from countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe. Rounding out
the consultation process have been meetings with representatives
from NGOs and academia.
"I
am very pleased with the outcomes of this meeting. All the
Latin American regions were represented, and in addition we
had the right balance of government delegates, NGOs, representatives
from civil society networks of people living with HIV/AIDS,
and multilateral organizations", said Paulo Teixeira,
National Coordinator of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases
& AIDS Program of the Ministry of Health in Brazil, and
also member of the TWG. "We elaborated concrete recommendations
for the TWG , which will be discussed at the next TWG meeting
in Brussels", he said.
The
TWG, comprised of nearly 40 representatives of developing
and developed countries, UN agencies, the World Bank, the
private sector, foundations and NGOs, will next meet in Brussels
on 22-24 November. At this meeting – the second of three –
the participants will need to make final decisions on a number
of issues that include governance, country implementation
processes, accountability, fiduciary and legal arrangements,
and frameworks for technical review of country proposals.
At
its first meeting in October, the TWG reached consensus
on the basic principles, purpose and scope of the Fund.
At its third and final meeting in mid-December, the TWG
intends to have made all the necessary arrangements to be
able to hand over operational responsibility to the ultimate
Board of the Fund.
Read
the Press Release in Spanish
and Portuguese
.
