The European Commission’s response to HIV&AIDS: Lost between ’Ownership’, ‘Division of Labour’ and ‘Mainstreaming’

The EC has strong policy commitments to the fight against HIV&AIDS, but – as the new Alliance2015 report concludes - these commitments are not translated into adequate support for this goal. The Alliance report focuses on five countries in Southern Africa: Angola, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, all severely affected by HIV&AIDS.

Building on the findings of the Alliance 2015-Watch MDG Mid-term Review, this report assesses the extent to which the EC includes the fight against HIV&AIDS in its aid programmes for Angola, DRC, Malawi, MozambiqueandZambia. The report is based on an extensive number of interviews with EC officials, government officials and representatives of civil society organisations in the five countries in Southern Africa.

In Angola and the DRC, it is clear that political instability and armed conflict have compounded the spread of HIV&AIDS and a lack of health facilities or access to health facilities has further aggravated the crisis. In all of the case countries, women – especially young women - are more severely affected. Evidence from UNAIDS reveals that Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia have the highest HIV prevalence rates of the five case countries, with one in five or six people infected. The scale of the HIV&AIDS crises in these countries has major implications for their social and economic development.

The EC’s direct support for health and the fight against HIV&AIDS in the countries is low and will probably decrease as a proportion of its overall aid during the period of EDF 10* (2008 – 2013). As shown above, HIV&AIDS are major problems in all five of the case countries. However, an indication of the volume of funding for the fight against HIV&AIDS under EDF 10 was provided in just one out the five cases.

The EC refers to the principles of ownership, division of labour and mainstreaming as means of enhancing its response to HIV&AIDS. However, from discussions with the EC's staff both at headquarters and in the delegations, it appears that the failure to implement these principles is ironically contributing to the Commission's limited response to HIV&AIDS.

This report analyses how the above-mentioned principles are operationalised, and assesses whether they provide genuine justification for the lack of focus on the fight against HIV&AIDS in the five case countries.

It adds further substance to the issues raised in Alliance2015’s most recent 2015-Watch report, which concluded that the EC needs to step up its efforts to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It sits alongside other analysis currently underway within Alliance2015 in relation to the EC’s focus on Education and in particular on the issue of Child Labour.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently stated that the goal of poverty eradication could only be achieved if governments of both developed and developing countries lived up to their promises. In a speech given on the occasion of World Poverty Day on 17

October 2007, he urged governments across the globe to redouble their efforts to achieve the MDGs.