In 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, Canada joined 189 world governments in the commitment to achieve the MDGs, a set of 8 goals aimed at improving the lives of the world’s poorest by 2015.

The Target

• Have halved by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

• Have halved by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

The Facts

By the year 2000, almost 22 million people had died from AIDS, 13 million children had lost their mother or both parents to the disease and more than 40 million people were living with the HIV virus, 90% of them in developing countries, 75% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Every year, there are more than 300 million cases of malaria, 90% of them in sub-Saharan Africa. And every year, 60 million people are infected with tuberculosis. Current medical technologies can prevent/cure these diseases from being fatal, but lack of access to healthcare means that tuberculosis kills 2 million people per year and malaria 1 million.

The Opportunity

To meet the goal of global universal access by 2010, available financial resources for HIV and AIDS must reach up to US$ 42.2 billion – more than quadruple the resources that were available in 2007.

It is essential that G8 reaffirm their commitment to fully meet the financial requirements of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Our Focus

Canada must ramp up efforts to achieve Universal Access for HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support beyond commitments.

Canada should make a multi-year commitment to fund 5% of the resources needed to meet the demand of the Global Fund and strengthen support for country health systems, consistent with a 10 year plan to achieve the 0.7% aid target for Canadian ODA.

Canada must improve access to life saving medicines by fixing Canada's Access to Medicines Regime.