Fridae

At Genoa, Italy, one of the issues being addressed at the G8 summit received somewhat disappointing pledge results. Launched last Friday by the United Nations and the G8 members, a global fund to combat AIDS and HIV received a only $1.2 billion in pledges, a number that is far, far short of the targetted $10 billion. Campaigners from the Global AIDS Alliance, which number religious, humanitarian and social justice groups, commented that the pledged amounts were "outrageously low".

This figure was announced by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was attending a Group of Eight (G8) summit being held at the Italian port city of Genoa. The G8 members are the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy and Russia.

While Annan applauds the initiative and the effort to begin combating AIDS, he also added that more resources are needed to carry the war. He estimates that another $7 - $10 billion a year are needed to effectively fight the deadly disease. He says that currently over 36 million people all over the world are infected, mostly in Africa, Asia, and South America. A staggering 23 million people have died from AIDS.

The fund will not entirely be used for AIDS support, but will also be utilised to combat malaria, tuberculosis and other disease endemic in Third World nations.
Italian sources believe the fund could reach as much as $2 billion dollars by the end of the year. Russia, one of the poorest G8 members, pledged $20 million to the fund. Russia and its neighbour Ukraine suffer from alarmingly fast AIDS growth rates, the highest in Europe.

Several groups are also campaigning the G8 summit on related issues, such as debt reduction for poorer nations and ensuring proper use of the fund to avoid it becoming a subsidy for US and European drug industries.