World AIDS Day 2006 United Cities and Local Governments, the world local government organisation, and the Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa (AMICAALL), today called for national governments to actively involve local government in the definition of national AIDS strategies. Mayors highlighted the need for local coordination and monitoring of the national response in order to increase accountability and scale up service provision.
The 2006 report from UNAIDS sets out strategic response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, but neglects to highlight the leadership role of the world’s mayors and the sustained investment required to build local governance capacity.
The report finds that even though the prevalence of HIV/AIDS rates has stabilized in sub-Saharan Africa, the actual number of people infected with HIV continues to grow due to population growth. With unprecedented urbanisation in the region, this population growth is largely taking place in cities so mayors and local councillors have an important role to play in ensuring that prevention, treatment and care responses are also reflected in local planning, coordination and monitoring.
UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS UCLG participated in a Special Session on fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS organized by the UN as part of a 5 year review of the progress in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.
Pierre Schapira, Deputy Mayor of Paris, and Mike E Mposha, Mayor of Lusaka, led a UCLG delegation to represent local government on the roundtables which featured 5-10 invited non-state representatives. In particular, they contributed their expertise on scaling up the response to UN targets on HIV/AIDS.
50% of the population of the planet will be living in cities by 2015. In many African cities, prevention, treatment and care responses need the involvement of local authorities to tailor them to local needs and to overcome the difficult social taboos surrounding the epidemic in a way that the citizens can relate to.
Local governments play a pivotal role in the fight against AIDS and are directly affected in its day to day impact. Many cities are closely involved in AIDS initiatives and organise events for World AIDS Day on 1 December each year.
STOP AIDS. Make the Promise This is why UCLG has joined forces with its partners the World AIDS Campaign, UNAIDS and the Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa (AMICAALL)- to launch the “STOP AIDS. Make the promise” initiative. In December 2005, Local Governments were leading actors during World AIDS Day for the first time with over 65 cities around the world organising coordinated events.
Join the initiative Local governments can join the “STOP AIDS. Make the promise” initiative by registering their commitment to undertake one or more of the following activities:
2. Hold a press conference and issue a press release on World AIDS Day;
3. Identify the city or local government association with the initiative by displaying posters and publicity materials;
4. Disseminate information to local schools – using the resources available on the UCLG website.
UCLG helped cities and national local government associations to organise activities by providing resources such as general information on HIV/AIDS, posters and public advertisements, model press releases and press kits, and materials for dissemination to schools.
AMICAALL
Information pack of the initiative
