[procaare] HIV/AIDS stakeholders meet on Universal Access in Ghana

["ProCAARE" <procaare@healthnet.org>]

HIV/AIDS stakeholders meet on Universal Access
GNA: Feb 20 2006
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Accra, Feb. 20, GNA - A consultative meeting on HIV/AIDS has called for
specific laws and policies on the pandemic and People Living with
HIV/AIDS to meet the universal access to prevention, treatment, care and
support by the year 2010.

The meeting, held on Friday brought together stakeholders in the fight
against HIV/AIDS headed by Ghana AIDS Commission, identified some
technical obstacles such as lack of comprehensive national database for
planning, programme management, inadequate harmonization, coordination
and funding arrangements between multilateral institutions,
international partners and national stakeholders. Other stakeholders
included the National AIDS Control Programme, UNAIDS, the World Health
Organisation and the British Department for International Development
(DfID)

The meeting also identified the operation of parallel systems of
reporting and funding as another obstacle in achieving universal access
and said it was also difficult to forecast resources that development
partners would make available to support the national response. The
meeting, which was chaired by Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa of the AIDS
Commission, was to assess the strength and weaknesses of scaling up the
national response towards Universal Access in Ghana by the year 2010.

The UN Member States in 2001 at the UN General Assembly Special Session
on HIV/AIDS made a Declaration of Commitment with targets to scale up
the global HIV/AIDS response and to reverse the pandemic. After the UN
Assembly special session, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria was established to provide low and middle income countries
with additional funds to fight AIDS and other diseases.

The Global Task Team's recommendations and the communique issued at the
end of G8 Summit spurred international commitments towards scaling up
Universal Access.

The Universal Access is a broad movement towards achieving renewed
global commitment to establish, accelerate and expand existing
nationally led owned HIV comprehensive prevention, treatment care and
support programmes.

Participants at the end of the meeting agreed that there was the need
for long-term financial commitments by the Government, a comprehensive
human resource plan that would deal with national resource issues and
improve HIV/AIDS service delivery infrastructure. They suggested that
the issues and concerns raised be addressed as early as possible to
ensure Universal Access to prevention, treatment care and support. 

GNA: 20 Feb. 06 

Source: Ghanaweb
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=99658