Church Leaders Seek for Massive Increase in Resources to Fight HIV/AIDSG-8 Summit
Despite new US and French promises to provide more funding for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, international church leaders who gathered last week in Berlin, Germany, demanded that their governments pledge and deliver massive amounts of new funding for the fight against HIV/AIDS. They are joined by church leaders throughout the world in this call for urgent action at the G-8 summit. The international church leaders who met last week in Berlin through the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) campaign on HIV/AIDS called on "all governments during the G-8 meeting (1-3 June) to pledge and deliver an additional USD 1.4 billion" for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). The World Council of Churches (WCC) helped initiate and participates in the EAA.
Dr Christoph Benn, an advisor to the WCC programme on HIV/AIDS, added: "It was the G-8 that initiated the Global Fund, and they must continue to commit the necessary resources to make the instrument an effective one, along with continuing their individual, bi-lateral commitments in battling HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria. When the summit is over, we must see firm pledges delivered this year for at least an additional USD 1.4 billion for the work of the Global Fund. We will be checking the math and holding our leaders accountable."
The Alliance is a broad ecumenical network for international cooperation in advocacy on HIV/AIDS and global trade. With more than 85 participating churches and related organizations committed to a common three-year advocacy campaign on HIV/AIDS, it reaches hundreds of millions of Christians around the world.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
By WCC
