Organizations devoted to combatting HIV/AIDS in Africa said today that the G8 has fallen short by more than 30 per cent on its commitment to provide an additional 25 billion dollars this year to fighting the epidemic, according to dpa. The Group of Eight nations committed to the amount when it met in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. The G8 is scheduled to meet this weekend in Muskoka, near Toronto, and has issued a report on HIV/AIDS, recognizing its failure to fulfil the promise. AIDS Free World, a Canadian advocacy group headed by former Canadian UN ambassador Stephen Lewis, said the G8 Muskoka Accountability Report released this week admitted that the bloc will fall short by at least 7 billion dollars of the total of 25 billion dollars this year, or about 30 per cent. Lewis said studies by two other anti-AIDS organizations show that the G8's shortfall on fighting the disease may be higher. The ONE Campaign, co-founded by singer Bono, said the G8 has fallen short by at least 8.9 billion dollars, or 40 per cent, using a slightly different form of calculation than the Muskoka report. "Bono and company do their best to flatter the contributions of the G8, but even they are forced to say that the increases from 2005 to 2010 have fallen far short of what was promised," Lewis said. The Africa Progress Report 2010, published by a panel of international experts and chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, said the G8 will have fallen short by at least 9.8 billion dollars once the group has done its final calculation. "This background is merely to underscore the betrayal of Africa to which the G8 is congenitally addicted," Lewis said. "It should come as no surprise then to learn that now, the G8 is explicitly cutting back on funding for HIV/AIDS." Lewis said the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is being "flat-lined, for at least the next two years." He said Washington now believes that the AIDS campaigns have had too much money and that additional funds should go to other health initiatives like maternal and child health. "If the G8 and G20 are to do more than dissemble, they have to match their actions to their commitments," Lewis said. "This time, they must put up the money that's required for Africa along with a timetable for delivery, and then they must keep their promises by sticking to that timetable." AIDS Free World said the international community now knows how to treat large numbers of people living with AIDS and that "hope is finally alive." It said 5 million people are now receiving treatment and 9 million others are waiting for it. The advocacy group said Doctors Without Borders and other non- governmental organizations are providing medical treatment in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Those groups cannot accept new patients unless someone dies. It said the cut-backs in PEPFAR funds have had disastrous effects in places where HIV-positive pregnant women were turned away and people are so sick that they were carried in wheelbarrows to hospitals. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, supported by donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is seeking to replenish this shortfall with 20 billion dollars for a three-year period. But it is facing a gap of 7 billion dollars this year.
