AIDS campaigners are calling on the British and French governments to develop a common strategy to end the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and guarantee full access to basic education.
In a report published today, the Global AIDS Alliance, a grassroots campaign, gives its wholehearted backing to Gordon Brown's proposed International Finance Facility (the IFF) and calls on the French government to work with Brown to capitalise the Facility with revenues obtained from the French proposal for an airline tax.
Paul Zeitz, Director of the Global AIDS Alliance said: "History has taught us that threats to social, economic and political stability cannot be dealt with through an attitude of 'appeasement.' Instead governments should drop their rivalry, and develop a common strategy to raise sufficient resources to fight one of the biggest threats to global security -- the AIDS pandemic. Anglo-French leadership is vital given that the world's superpower refuses to exercise such leadership."
The report says the world must move much faster to launch new ways of raising money to fight HIV/AIDS, since without greater aid there will be little hope of stopping the epidemic. Only by uniting the UK and French proposals can the world quickly raise the funds needed, while ensuring sustainability.