Montréal — Today, on World AIDS Day, International Cooperation Minister and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, Josée Verner, outlined the government of Canada's long-term, comprehensive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS that builds on strong partnerships, and our experience of what works to deliver concrete results. Minister Verner announced that Canada will provide $120 million to support global HIV/AIDS efforts focussing on four key areas: prevention, strengthening health systems, promoting women's empowerment, and promoting 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 focusses on effective partnerships that deliver results, demonstrating Canada’s new government’s commitment to the aid effectiveness agenda. 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."

Canada's contribution to the global response to HIV/AIDS will enhance support for a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS that recognizes the importance of promoting and protecting human rights, with a particular emphasis on four key areas:

• to advance effective, evidence-based HIV prevention, including linking HIV/AIDS with education and the development of new preventive technologies;

• to promote gender equality and women's empowerment to address the feminization of HIV/AIDS;

• to strengthen health systems in developing countries to ensure equitable access to essential care, treatment and support for all those who need it; and,

• to promote the rights of children and to protect those children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Canada will continue to support national, international and developing country partners, all of whom share a strong focus on achieving results and ensuring the effectiveness of aid. Today's funding will support:

• research to develop an effective vaccine and a microbicide, a female-controlled method of preventing HIV transmission;

• efforts by civil society and governments to implement country strategies such as in South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Ukraine, the Balkans, and Haiti, some countries most affected by HIV/AIDS; and,

• Canadian civil society partners for initiatives including stepping up prevention and education efforts, providing care, treatment and support for those living with HIV, addressing the gender dimensions of the disease, and promoting children's rights.

"Canada's investments in HIV/AIDS globally, along with those of our development partners, mean that so far 37 clinical trials to find an effective AIDS vaccine are underway," said Minister Verner. "Not to mention the South African AIDS Trust, which has helped to treat 340,000 children and 43,000 adults affected by HIV/AIDS, and this is just one success story among many that we are seeing around the world," said Minister Verner.

Canada will continue to support established programs which have a proven track record of achieving results, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to which Canada's new government has already provided $250 million for this year and next.

For more detailed information on today's announcement and on Canada's international commitments to HIV/AIDS, please consult the enclosed backgrounder.

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Canada builds on what works to fight HIV/AIDS globally

On World AIDS Day 2006, Minister Verner announced $120 million for the first in a series of new and concrete HIV/AIDS initiatives that recognize the importance the promoting and protecting human rights, and focus on four main areas: prevention, strengthening health systems, promoting women's empowerment, and promoting children's rights.

Today's funding will provide:

• $41 million to support research for prevention technologies:

• $20 million over two years to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to further global research for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection;


• $15 million to the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) to speed up the development and delivery of a safe and effective microbicide, bringing CIDA's total contribution to the IPM to $30 million over five years;


• $6 million over two years through the Global Health Research Initiative to create an effective and collaborative research environment between Canadian and African researchers for HIV/AIDS prevention research;


• $20 million over two years to the Government of Tanzania to support national HIV/AIDS plans;

• $19 million over five years for a project managed by the Centre canadien d'études et de coopération internationale and the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement with Haiti's Ministry of Health to provide sexually transmitted infection treatment services and HIV/AIDS prevention;

• $10 million over five years to the Government of Mozambique to support the plans and priorities of the Mozambican National AIDS Council;

• $7 million over four years to the Canadian Society for International Health and World University Service of Canada to improve and protect the health of adolescents by preventing HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in the Balkans;

• $4.9 million over five years to CHF to develop sustainable livelihood options for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and Vietnam;

• $4.4 million over five years to the South African national and provincial Departments of Health to help build their capacity to manage and disburse funds to non-governmental organizations working on HIV/AIDS; and

• $3 million over three years to the Open Society Institute to train and develop the capacity of local organizations in harm reduction measures in Ukraine, Russia and Georgia, where the spread of HIV/AIDS is due largely to injected drug use.

• $3 million over five years to the Commonwealth Games of Canada to promote HIV/AIDS prevention through sport;

• $2.5 million over three years to the McGill University Health Centre Research Institute to prevent parent-to-child transmission of HIV in Zimbabwe;

• $1.5 million over three years to Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief to promote food security to reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, focusing on the participation of women, in Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda;

• $1.2 million over two years to the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations to scale up the Global Initiative of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, and improve the quality of life of those infected and affected;

• $1 million over one year to CARE Canada to improve the health of children, including by promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, in Zambia;

• $232,000 over one year to Club 2/3, YMCA & Youth Challenge International Coalition to support youth-led responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa;

• $227,000 over one year to Alternatives to promote African capacities to prevent and fight HIV/AIDS;

• $189,000 over two years to International Needs Canada to promote awareness of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and reproductive health in Ghana;

• $142,000 to over one year to Oxfam-Québec to work on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies;

• $135,000 over one year to World University Service of Canada to promote gender equity to combat HIV/AIDS;

• $120,000 over two years to the Canada Africa Partnership to provide safe livelihood options through job-training and micro-financing for orphans from AIDS-affected families in Ethiopia and Uganda;

• $106,000 to over one year to Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Canada to engage young men in Cameroon in the fight against HIV/AIDS; and

• $65,000 over one year to VSO Canada to combat HIV/AIDS in Zambia.

Results of Canada's investments in HIV/AIDS

This new commitment builds on Canada's contribution of $250 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over this year and next. Canada is one of the leading donors in the global response to HIV/AIDS, and its investments are delivering strong results in HIV/AIDS prevention, including education and research; treatment; gender equality and protecting children:

• in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, 42,000 people with AIDS received improved home-based care services, and 43,000 gained access to voluntary HIV counselling and testing;

• as the largest donor to the World Health Organization's 3 by 5 initiative, CIDA's support, together with the efforts of other international partners, helped to give 1.6 million more people in Africa and Asia access to drug therapy for HIV/AIDS;

• since 2005, the support of CIDA and other partners has enabled more than 37 clinical trials of preventative AIDS vaccines and several microbicide trials to get underway;

• the Southern African AIDS Trust has helped to treat 340,000 children and 43,000 adults affected by HIV/AIDS and provided home care services to 42,000 people living with HIV/AIDS;

• between 2004 and 2005, the number of people on anti-retroviral treatment in Mozambique nearly tripled, from just over 7,400 to almost 20,000;

• in Zimbabwe, some 20,000 women have benefited from programs to prevent parent-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS: 14,000 women took part in education and awareness workshops about transmission, 6,500 women received testing and counselling services and more than 800 women and 650 infants accessed anti-retroviral treatment; and

• in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the number of people with HIV receiving antiretroviral drugs increased from 7,721 to 18,671 in just one year.

The reality of HIV/AIDS around the world

In 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV and the global HIV epidemic continues to grow. More than 90% of these people live in developing countries. An estimated 4.3 million people became newly infected and 2.9 millions lost their lives to HIV/AIDS.

Globally, there are more than 17.7 million women living with HIV, an increase of more than one million compared with two years ago. Young women are 1.6 times more likely to be living with HIV/AIDS than young men. In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls already make up almost 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Children under 15 account for one in six global AIDS-related deaths and one in seven new global HIV infections.

(Source: The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS/World Health Organization)