The Challenge to HIV: A Call for Leadership
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The following is an article by Reeta Bhatia, the UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean on the occasion of World AIDS Day 2007 which is marked on December 1.
Leadership is the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day. Committed and decisive leadership holds the key to the successful challenge to an epidemic which has potentially devastating consequences for the Eastern Caribbean, both for individual countries and for the region as a whole.
Taking the lead against the encroachment of HIV should occur in a multiplicity of sectors, involving all partners, in all walks of life. Many voices need to be heard; not only politicians and AIDS activists but faith-based groups, the business community, grass roots organisations, youth and council leaders, women’s groups etc. Everyone has a stake in ensuring that the threat of HIV is met with resolve and dedication. In choosing this theme for World AIDS Day 2007 and 2008, the World AIDS Campaign, an independent international NGO bringing together a wide-range of stakeholders on a global level, recognises this truth.
Leadership can take many forms. It can be the political will needed to fulfil international commitments such as Universal Access to prevention, treatment, care and support for all by 2010. It can be opinion formers ensuring that HIV stays on the agenda. It can be high profile individuals being seen to go for voluntary counselling and testing. It can be people living with HIV being prepared to give a human face to the virus and talk about their lives openly. It can be forthright challenges to stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV wherever they occur. ~~Adz:Right~~
Encouraging the most effective leadership possible is a prerequisite in the Caribbean, which is still the second most affected region after sub-Saharan Africa. According to the latest UNAIDS Epidemic Update, an estimated 230,000 people are currently living with the virus in the region, more and more of them women; 17,000 became newly infected in 2007 and 11,000 have died this year. Across the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States there are more than 5,000 people estimated to be living with HIV. In St Kitts and Nevis, as elsewhere, they are likely to be the most economically active.
There is a crucial need to recognise that HIV is not simply a health issue. It has a profound potential impact on social, political and economic development. The Small Island Developing States that constitute the sub-region are already socially and economically vulnerable in a number of ways. They are often reliant on one industry, have a narrow resource base, high external debt, and a scarcity of skilled human resources. Such development challenges are then exacerbated where HIV has a significant presence and the striving for greater development and greater prosperity can be severely compromised.
An entrenched epidemic militates against economic growth and has a profound impact not only on families who may lose breadwinners, or companies who may lose key workers, but on communities and nations as these losses mount and begin to have consequences. The effect of AIDS on development is often likened to a pebble dropped in a pool that sends ripples beyond the initial impact.
However, despite the seriousness of the epidemic and the scale of the response needed, there have been some notable successes. St Kitts and Nevis, for instance, has made antiretroviral therapy available free of charge to those in need. Additionally, voluntary counselling and testing provision is expanding, with greater numbers finding out about their HIV status. It can be seen that with increased commitment and tenacity, the AIDS response is beginning to make a difference.
In St Kitts and Nevis and throughout the Eastern Caribbean, governments have recognised the extent of the threat and are reacting accordingly. For some time, despite little or no international funding, political leaders in the sub-region have been guiding the response from the highest levels. Many civil society organisations are also taking up the challenge. Such emerging strength of leadership will be necessary if we are to reach our ultimate goal; halting the spread of AIDS.
