Committee on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria

“For the first time in its history, the World Bank is keen to work with parliamentarians on development issus like HIV/AIDS. The onus is now on us to learn from the Bank's successes as much as from its failures and to become more effective legislators and partners for development."  Senator Mary Henry, Ireland, HIV/AIDS Committee member.

Rationale

The figures are alarming: 39 million people are living with HIV/AIDS today; one third of the world population is infected with Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria kills more than one million people a year, with 90% of death occurring in Africa.  As political leaders and legislators, parliamentarians are in a unique position to mobilise governments to respond appropriately to the epidemics.

The PNoWB Committee on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria was established in February 2004, during a field visit in Ethiopia, under the leadership of US Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Hon. Dorothy Hyuha, MP of Uganda.

The Committee brings together over one hundred parliamentarians from both developed and developing countries who share a commitment to fighting the three epidemics.  An international Steering Committee of fifteen MPs coordinates and supervises the Committee.

The HIV/AIDS International Steering Committee has outlined four priorities for action to:

-        encourage comprehensive parliamentary engagement by establishing networks of elected officials;

-        strengthen the capacity of parliamentarians for effective legislation, advocacy, resource mobilisation and oversight;

-         advocate for improved and increased resource allocation;

-         promote cooperation between multilateral, bilateral, civil society, government structures and parliamentarians.

The Committee will support PNoWB regional chapters in Africa and India to establish regional committees to conduct regional advocacy work; encourage the creation of national parliamentary committees and disseminate regular information briefs to all Committees’ members.

To leverage its resources, the Steering Committee has established ties with the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, Parliamentarians for Global Action, AWEPA-European Parliamentarians for Africa as well as leading civil society organisations, including Jurisaids and the World Bank’s HIV/AIDS team.

Features

Senator Michel Guerry from France represented PNoWB in the XVIth AIDS Conference in Toronto, on August 13-18, 2006.  Senator Guerry delivered his thoughts in an inspiring and lively report, where he emphasized his concerns over the lack of address of Tuberculosis and Malaria diseases during the conference and the inappropriateness of western-oriented solutions to tackle AIDS plight in the South.