WAC Abuja +5

Efforts are taking place across Africa to enhance civil society involvement in reviewing progress on the targets laid out in the Abuja Summits of 2000 and 2001. The primary goal of the 2000/1 declarations was to arrest and reverse the morbidity and mortality rates due to HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. A Summit of African Heads of State and Government on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is taking place in Abuja on 01 and 02 of May 2006 to take stock of Africa’s performance towards these goals. A group of agencies is working to make this meeting more effective and to increase the pressure on Africa’s governments and multilateral agencies to start delivering.

This group of agencies is becoming increasingly organised and is now working under the title of the Civil Society Coalition on Abuja plus Five. This coalition came about as key African civil society organisations, including JAAIDS and Panos, started communicating on the need to work on Abuja. The World AIDS Campaign is keen to support and publicise the work of this group. Civil society engagement with the Abuja+5 summit is of paramount importance. While Goverments and Heads of state review the progress made in achieving the targets agreed upon at the previous Abuja Summits, civil society should be scrutinizing their work and pushing for more commitment, and clear explanations where there have been failings.