§ Sir Archy KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects his Department funds to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa; how much expenditure is committed to each project; and what the time scale is of each project. [170596]
§ Hilary BennI have arranged for a copy of a table entitled 'Africa—Operational Projects/Programmes to combat HIV/AIDS' to be placed in the Library of the House. This identifies all those programmes or projects currently funded by the Department for International Development, which have a policy objective of "combating HIV/AIDS ". The total commitment is more than £1 billion. This figure includes expenditure already incurred against these ongoing activities as well as some future planned spending.
§ Sir Archy KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans he has to increase expenditure levels for projects in Africa to combat the spread of AIDS over the next three years. [170597]
§ Hilary BennIn December 2003, the UK Government's Call for Action on HIV/AIDS announced that DFID will make HIV/AIDS a priority for the additional funds that the UK will be devoting to Africa by 2006. Many of those African countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS are among the DFID's bilateral country partners, (over 80 per cent. of AIDS' deaths occur in DFID's 16 African partner countries). The new UK Strategy on HIV/AIDS, to be published this summer, will cover the level of the UK's future resource commitments for HIV/AIDS.
Several DFID African bilateral country programmes have recently stepped up expenditure in support of programmes to help combat HIV/AIDS; for example: a £25 million project for strengthening Nigeria's capacity to respond effectively to HIV/AIDS, and in Tanzania, DFID is working with the Tanzanian Government to set 1706W up an HIV/AIDS Fund of around £15 million per year over the next three years. In Malawi a programme is being designed that focuses on actions to help address the impact of HIV/AIDS on human resources in health and other sectors.
However, scaling-up the HIV/AIDS response will not only require additional expenditure for HIV/AIDS-specific programmes. The socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS and the vulnerability of the poor people in developing countries to HIV/AIDS mean that DFID's overall development effort around support for country owned Poverty Reduction Strategies remain of central importance. DFID's continuing work in the area of capacity building, education, public and financial sector reform and strengthening of civil society will all contribute to combating HIV/AIDS.
DFID will make HIV/AIDS and Africa a centrepiece of the UK's Presidencies of the G8 and the EU in 2005. This creates an opportunity to work with the international community to increase the global HIV/ AIDS response in Africa. If DFID is to succeed with our efforts we shall need to focus on four challenges that are seen as key to unlocking faster progress: Stronger political direction, better funding, better donor co-ordination and better HIV/AIDS programmes.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) when the Department will report progress on its targets(a) to reduce maternal mortality and (b) to tackle HIV/AIDS in Asia; [171682]
(2) if he will make a statement on progress on (a) the reduction of the under five mortality rate and (b) the TB treatment rates in Asia. [171684]
§ Hilary BennDFID's Departmental Report for 2004 (Reference code CM 6214), published on 5 May, reports on progress against the targets to reduce maternal mortality and to tackle HIV/AIDS and also to increase TB treatment rates in Asia. Copies of this report have been placed in the Library of the House.