It will also focus on creating a national conversation about reducing HIV infection and overcoming the stigma that prevents so many from being tested.

With over 18 per cent and 5.7 million people living with the virus, South Africa has one of the highest HIV rates in the world. This places an enormous burden on people, families, communities and the state. For a number of years South Africa’s approach to HIV/AIDS was mired in controversy, delay and a denial of the science which says that HIV causes AIDS. However, in recent times the government has redoubled their efforts to tackle the pandemic.

Only a few weeks ago I heard a woman ask a respected and outspoken international HIV/AIDS campaigner ‘Has South Africa’s policy on HIV changed since Jacob Zuma took office?’, expecting a critical response. ‘It’s like night and day’ came the reply.

Over the last year South Africa has rolled out a much welcomed national strategic plan on HIV/AIDS which includes a significant increase in testing and access to anti-retroviral treatment for TB sufferers, infants and pregnant women.

In April UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé commended the South African Government for its leadership and commitment to tackling HIV. ‘This campaign is the biggest national mobilisation in South Africa around any one single issue since the end of apartheid. Testing 15 million people by the end of 2011 is the largest programme scale-up in the world we have seen so far. It is historic.’

South Africa has made significant progress in the fight against AIDS. Over the last eight months nearly four million people have been tested and the number of people receiving treatment has doubled. However, there is still a long way to go before infection and treatment rates reach a level where the pandemic doesn’t affect every single person in South Africa. Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic has plateaued, it has done so at extraordinarily high levels.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has been one of the key factors in the roll-out of treatment. In southern Africa the fund supports the provision of almost 40 per cent of anti-retroviral treatment. If the region is to meet the Millennium Development Goal on HIV/AIDS, western governments need to scale up their contribution to the Global Fund dramatically.

At the international AIDS summit in Vienna this July, the signs looked promising. Governments and donors spoke about tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic with passion, but when it came to contributing to the Global Fund, support was significantly lower than anyone could have imagined. The Global Fund needs $20 billion over the next three years if we are to come anywhere near meeting the Millennium Development Goal on HIV/AIDS. To maintain existing programmes, it needs $13.5 billion. Governments have so far contributed a mere $11.7 billion.

The Global Fund has already proved itself to be a success. In its short life it has saved many lives in South Africa through the HIV and TB treatment programmes it has supported, but with current funding commitments this progress is set to go into reverse.

Responding to the lack of commitment from the international community, Nkhensani Mavasa from the Treatment Acton Campaign (TAC) said ‘Now I’m afraid, afraid of what this will mean for South Africa, for the lives that we are now going to lose, the children who will be born with HIV who don’t need to be, and for our national strategic plan which will be starved of the resources needed to reach universal access.’

The British government is unlikely to announce its commitment to the Global Fund any time soon, waiting for the outcome of the multilateral aid review early next year. However, we urgently need Britain to lead by example and commit its fair share towards the Global Fund, in order to help put the global effort to tackle AIDS back on track.

‘We are responsible’ is not just a message for the people of South Africa this World AIDS Day, but a message for all of us. Without a significant increase in support for the Global Fund not only will we fail to meet the Millennium Development Goal on universal access to HIV treatment, care and support but we will see a reversal in the progress already made.

Write to Andrew Mitchell, secretary of state for international development to call on the UK to show leadership and invest in the Global Fund. 

Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) is the successor organisation to the Anti-Apartheid Movement. It campaigns for justice, rights and development in solidarity with the people of southern Africa.

Photo: JF Holloway