Priority Area 1: Background and Summary of Activities on HIV/AIDS

Background

Through the Sustainable Development, Health and Population Programme (SDHP), PGA was a leading force behind the parliamentary consensus for the Rio Summit in 1992 and the Cairo Population Conference of 1994, which stressed reproductive health and women's rights rather than demographic goals alone.  Since 1995, SDHP has worked in Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Ghana to implement the population program established during the Cairo Conference.  Drawing from PGA's unique strength as a global network, in recent years, SDHP's programme work aims to galvanize political leadership and create an enabling environment for the implementation of a number of internationally agreed development goals and targets.  These goals and targets include those stated in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (ICPD PoA), the United Nations Millennium Declaration containing the Millennium Development Goals and Targets and 2005 World Summit Outcome, and the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS, June 2001).  To advance the goals of these global initiatives SDHP identified Communicable and Infectious Diseases as a priority area under which to conduct program work.

Summary of Activities on HIV/AIDS

In January 2005, PGA conducted its first sub-regional parliamentary seminar on HIV/AIDS policy in Islamabad,  Pakistan.  This seminar was the first international parliamentary conference on HIV/AIDS in South Asia held in Pakistan.  In follow-up to this successful event, PGA conducted two provincial level seminars in Pakistan and a second sub-regional seminar in Bangladesh during 2006.  For 2007-09 SDHP programme activities on HIV/AIDS are focused on the role of legislation in implementing national HIV/AIDS strategies/frameworks and examining model law.  In 2007, SDHP organized HIV/AIDS seminars in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  During the latter part of 2008, SDHP will organize HIV/AIDS seminars in Kathmandu, Nepal, Hyderabad, India and in Quetta, Pakistan.  SDHP plans to send a small delegation to Afghanistan to assess the feasibility of conducting an HIV/AIDS seminar in Kabul in the near future.  In continuing its participation in the pre-G 8 meetings, SDHP will send a small delegation to the upcoming Parliamentarians G8 meeting in Tokyo in July and will send a small delegation to the biennial international conference on HIV/AIDS in Mexico City in August.