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HIV and AIDS
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The German contribution in the fight against AIDS
German development cooperation supports activities aimed at combating HIV in more than 40 countries. Germany has agreed with 14 of its partner countries to make health-sector development a priority area of bilateral cooperation. From 2008 the German government will channel on average 500 million euros annually into efforts aimed at helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by the year 2015. The funds will be deployed under bilateral development cooperation, through multilateral organisations and via the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF).
Aside from these direct measures, other programmes within German development cooperation are helping to halt the AIDS pandemic. The fight against HIV and AIDS – like the fight against poverty – is an overarching goal of German development policy. With the BMZ Action Plan to Implement the Government's HIV/AIDS Strategy, the German government is basing its global efforts in the period from 2007 to 2010 on four fundamental principles: protection of human rights; mainstreaming the HIV/AIDS response in development cooperation; capacity development; and promoting gender equality.
The objectives of the German contribution to the global fight against the AIDS pandemic are: to reduce through prevention the number of new HIV infections, to facilitate access to medical treatment and to enable people living with HIV and their families to live a life in dignity. The aim is to alleviate the social and economic impact of AIDS.
Germany's international cooperation
Germany works closely with international organisations in the fight against HIV and AIDS. At the G8 Summit in Genoa in 2001, the heads of state and government of the leading industrialised nations agreed to set up a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF). Germany was one of the initiators of the GF, which has developed into the financially strongest organisation in the international fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The German government contributes substantial funds to its financing.
For many years, Germany has also supported the European Union, the World Bank and various other UN organisations in the fight against AIDS: the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Coordination and harmonisation
An important aim of German development policy is to coordinate and harmonise the efforts of donors and cooperation partners. The German government therefore adopted an action plan on harmonisation early on. It supports the 'Three Ones' initiative, which was designed by UNAIDS and prepared jointly with the GF and the World Bank. Its aims are: one agreed and coordinated national framework for preparing action plans; one national AIDS coordinating authority with a broad-based multisectoral mandate; one agreed country-level monitoring and evaluation system.
Germany also participates in what is known as 'basket funding' to implement the national responses of developing countries. Work is also ongoing within German development cooperation to enhance networking between the various German actors, with a view to achieving greater synergies in HIV control.
The German programme to fight AIDS
The German programmes to fight AIDS in developing countries focus on five major areas:
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Cooperation and coordination among the various actors involved in combating AIDS
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Prevention
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Improving health care services and therapy, providing access to affordable medicines (inter alia, by supporting the manufacture of generic medicines)
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Creating a climate of solidarity
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Monitoring and quality control of all measures.
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