Panelists in this afternoon’s Bridging Session at 15:00 on funding and policy will touch on some of the provocative questions that arise in allocating resources for HIV/AIDS at the national and international levels.

Session Chair Dominique Hausser of Switzerland intends to open the session by raising a series of issues related to funding and policy priorities. In an interview prior to the Conference, he highlighted the competition for funds between prevention and treatment, between HIV and other health areas, and between health and other social services.

this story can also be found in The Bridge, the onsite print newspaper

"We now have treatments against [some] diarrhoeal diseases. They’re cheap and effective, but diarrhoea still kills a great many people in developing countries," he says. "We should also discuss whether putting money into education and empowerment of people is a better way to fight an epidemic [than spending on health services]."

Shaun Mellors, Executive Director of GNP+, cites resources for front-line organisations as a serious concern for communities affected by and living with HIV/AIDS. "In the past few years, funding was always forthcoming," he says, "partly because it was politically correct to fund PWA networks and to involve PWAs in ‘policy’. Since Vancouver, AIDS in the western world has come to be seen as a chronic disease, and we’ve seen a very stark difference [in funding levels]."

This session features many political figures including ministers of health from northern and southern countries such as Canada and Senegal. Please note room change to Hall 1 (where translation to French and Spanish is available).

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