Fighting HIV/AIDS Is ‘Central’ to African Development, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Says
Speaking yesterday at a U.N. General Assembly session focused on meeting development goals in Africa, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called HIV/AIDS the "greatest threat to Africa's development" and said that combating the disease must be a part of any development plan, the Los Angeles Times reports (Los Angeles Times, 9/17). Annan said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has "exacerbated the problems of poverty, discrimination, malnutrition and sexual exploitation of girls and women." He added that the disease was "devastating the education system as teachers are dying or disabled more quickly than they can be replaced" (Roy, Associated Press, 9/16). Annan said that fighting HIV/AIDS is "central to ... realizing the promise" that the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which was the focus of yesterday's session, holds for the continent. NEPAD was established last year by 15 African countries to foster "good governance and sound economic policies," which they hope will increase aid and trade possibilities with other nations (Agence France-Presse, 9/16). NEPAD is fashioned in the same vein as the U.S. Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Europe after World War II, and seeks to attract "billions of dollars" in investment each year to fuel development and fight infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria (Los Angeles Times, 9/17).
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