Sections:

World AIDS Day: What has been achieved?

Introduction | Supporting research | How are we making a difference? | Next steps for 2006

African women on a hill

Image courtesy of Microbicides Development Programme

Working in 40 countries around the world, we are now the world's second largest bilateral donor on HIV and AIDS.

This follows from our commitment in 2004 to provide at least £1.5 billion to tackling HIV and AIDS between 2005 and 2008, and the launch of the UK government's HIV and AIDS strategy.

In 2005, during the UK Presidencies of G8 and the European Union, DFID worked with other government departments parts to agree:

A commitment from G8 leaders to work to the ambitious target of getting as close as possible to universal access to treatment by 2010
A financial commitment from the UK to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria achieved at the Replenishment conference in September 2005, where DFID announced its doubled its funding to £100 million per year, and announced funding to UNAIDS of £16m per year to support technical assistance and reform

In 2006, working with our international partners, we will need to turn these commitments and promises into action by supporting countries to put in place programmes that work. Progress on our commitments will be assessed at the UN General Assembly Special Sessions on HIV/AIDS in June 2006.

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Supporting research

An African man and woman together

Image courtesy of UNAIDS

DFID's research programmes support the UK's strategy for tackling HIV and AIDS in the developing world and are all about making health systems more accessible to poor people - particularly to women and children - and delivering better and more sustainable health systems.

HIV and AIDS is a cross-cutting issue for DFID's health research programme, as well as for programmes in other sectors such as agriculture, education and social science. Here are two examples of what we currently fund:

Safe Passages to Adulthood is a research consortium led by the University of Southampton, focusing on young people's sexual behaviour. See id21 feature on HIV, AIDS and education for young people
HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) is a research programme led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on improving the quality of life for those living with HIV. Early findings indicate that quality of life can be improved by relatively simple and cheap alterations to the way in which Antiretroviral drug programmes are organised
Research shows that microbicides may become one of the most effective weapons against the spread of HIV. Find out more about the research we are funding, and follow our links to more information. See press release on new funding for microbicides and vaccines (1 Dec, 2005)

New research programmes

HIV and AIDS Treatment and Care Services: As antiretroviral provision is expanded research is needed to optimise the delivery of treatment and associated services. This research programme will focus on how best to deliver AIDS treatment and care, and associated services such as voluntary counselling, testing and palliative care.
Social Contexts of HIV and AIDS: Social and cultural issues have been shown to be important in the spread, resilience, adaptation and responses to HIV and AIDS, although little is known about how or why. The research will take place in a number of settings, including in states which are failing to meet the needs of the poor, to investigate the social and cultural determinants and consequences of HIV and AIDS.

How have we made a difference?

Here are a selection of HIV and AIDS-related stories and case studies on DFID's work from 2005. For more general info, look at our Millennium Development Goal homepage for HIV, AIDS and other diseases.

	1. One of the key outcomes from Gleneagles was that G8 countries agreed to provide universal access to HIV and AIDS treatment by 2010, through WHO, UNAIDS and other international bodies.
	2. Ghana's AIDS epidemic may be slowing, according to research released in April 2005, which showed that Ghana's HIV infection rate dropped for the first time in five years - from 3.6 percent in 2003 to 3.1%.

Next steps for 2006

Two hands touching

Image courtesy of HIV and AIDS Alliance

Throughout 2005, we have continued to keep AIDS constantly on the political radar - and discussed it at the highest levels. But it is clear that more needs to be done to tackle the epidemic.

The challenges of HIV and AIDS continues to need strong leadership from politicians, religious leaders and international organisations like the UN and World Health Organisation.

We are now firming up plans for more action next year. These include: