Canada has been a major supporter of the fight against AIDS. By supporting this effort through financial, informational and human resources, Canada continues to confirm its central role in international affairs. The Canadian government has not been the only Canadian participant in this global effort. In addition, innumerable Canadian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and committed Canadians have played important parts and made significant contributions to international efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic.
Several Government led initiatives are improving cooperation and collaboration in the fields of AIDS prevention:
- The Working Group on International HIV/AIDS Issues is bringing together representatives from NGOs to advise the federal government on formulating its international responses to developments in the global AIDS epidemic.
- An Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development has been created to prepare an inventory of Canadian responses to AIDS and to ensure that governmental and non-governmental organizations have accurate information on the activities and capacities of Canadian organizations.
- The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), through international partners, governments and NGOs, supports several international health organizations and AIDS programs all over the developing world. Furthermore CIDA is the seventh largest contributor to UNAIDS.
- The Ministerial Council on HIV/AIDS was created in 1998 to deal with the new Canadian Strategy on HIV/AIDS, announced in December 1997.
- CIDA has on-going HIV/AIDS collaborative projects in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
- In December 1999, CIDA announced $50 million in new funding to support projects that are successfully fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.
- In 1999, Ottawa hosted AIDS Impact, an annual multi-disciplinary international forum designed to provide information on how the latest medical research findings affect the psychosocial aspects of HIV.
- Health Canada led projects include among others:
- Organization of Workshops and other biotechnology transfer courses in Brazil, Hungary, India, Puerto Rico and West Africa.
- Provision of assistance with strategic planning for HIV/AIDS surveillance and epidemiology in Colombia by transferring skills and technology.
- Organization of a workshop to enhance the capacity of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s TB Centre to act as a regional catalyst for the monitoring, prevention and control of HIV/AIDS/TB in the South Asia region.
