Ottawa makes $120M pledge to fight AIDS

December 1st, 2006

Ottawa, Canada - The Ottawa government has pledged $120 million in initiatives to fight AIDS that has killed more than 25 million people.

Minister Josee Verner announced in Montreal earlier today that the money will be going to about 25 projects, and that there'll be more to come.

What she didn't announce was the expected $50 million the World Health Organization (WHO) was hoping for in order to keep pushing treatment throughout Africa.

A spokesperson for Verner called the WHO a "very important partner." They did not discount a funding commitment at a later date.

The $120 million will be focused for projects in four key areas: Prevention, strengthening health systems, promoting women's empowerment and children's rights.

"With close to 40 million people living with HIV globally, and the numbers growing, Canada is taking a long-term approach that focuses on effective partnerships that deliver results, demonstrating Canada's new government's commitment to the aid effectiveness agenda," Verner announced in a release.

"Today's funding is the first of a series of new and concrete HIV/AIDS initiatives to be announced in the future that will go beyond what has been done in the past."

Since the International AIDS Conference in Toronto last August, the world has been waiting to hear from Canada on its AIDS funding commitments.

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Envoy HIV/AIDS in Africa, met with CIDA officials on Aug. 14 and was told the federal government would be making a substantial monetary announcement to its international partners.

The International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and, WHO were all waiting to hear if Canada would continue to fund them.

To the astonishment of Lewis and others, the August press conference was abruptly cancelled. The government said it had become too politicized.

This morning's announcement outlined that $20 million will go to IAVI to further global research for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and $15 million to IPM to speed the creation and delivery of a safe and effective mircobicide. This should bring CIDA's total contribution to IPM to $30 million over five years.

"It's welcome that they are doing this, but they are not breaking new ground," said Mark Fried, of Oxfam Canada.

"This appears to be a continuation of current levels of funding. It's good that they are spending money on this. But we'd like them to spend more."