Progess Update on the Global Task Team and the Resource Needs Steering Committee by Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, on the necessity for the two groups to work together and interact.

I would like to emphasize that the impact of the epidemic is now starkly visible in the worst affected countries. Impacts on productivity, including agriculture, lead to knock-on effects in households. In the private sector AIDS undermines development by killing skilled and unskilled labour alike, increasing expenditures and reducing revenue.

In welcoming you to this 12th meeting of the PCB, I want to reflect on what has been a momentous year. For the first time, there is a real sense that the scale of the global HIV epidemic will be matched by the scale of the response. UNAIDS is now clearly operating in a very different context than when we started six years ago. And it is fair to say that we have been a major actor in shaping this different environment. This presentation will focus on how we are responding to the new reality.

This meeting of the PCB is among the most important in the Programme’s short history. My report on the Future Directions for UNAIDS responds to the recommendations of the Final Report of the Evaluation Team on the Five Year Evaluation by proposing specific operational actions to take the Programme forward.

Welcome to the seventh meeting of the Programme Coordinating Board, our second thematic meeting, and our first in Asia. It is a great personal pleasure to be here in India on what is my third visit this year. The strengthening of the international partnership in support of the Government of India’s HIV/AIDS efforts has been a major priority for UNAIDS over the last 18 months.

Update on the process of the Global Task Team and the Resource Needs Steering Committee, provided by their respective Co-Chairs, of developing resource needs estimates for AIDS.

Progess update from UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot on the Global Task Team and The Resource Needs Steering Committee in which he emphasizes the importance of harmonizing both process in the fight against AIDS.

We have heard the Secretary-General emphasize in his speech the dramatic change
in global action against AIDS since this august Assembly adopted the Declaration of
Commitment on HIV/AIDS four years ago.

At the outset, let me thank Canada and Minister Eileen Carol for their leadership on AIDS
and for having chaired the Board over the last year, particularly for all the support to the
Programme and to me personally. Let me also thank Brazil and Minister Humberto Costa for
accepting to be our Chair for the next 12 months – a very welcome step as part of Brazil’s
exceptional leadership on AIDS.