19 September, Launch of UNAIDS Reports: Debt Relief and Tax Revenue to End AIDS
On 18 September, UNAIDS launched the two reports which it commissioned from DFI on Financing the End of AIDS as a Public Health Threat in Africa: Debt Relief and Tax Revenue. The reports were written by Gail Hurley and Matthew Martin, with data compiled by David Waddock and Maria Holloway. A panel of Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS; Matthew Martin of DFI; Attiya Waris, UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights; and Kevin Watkins, Visiting Professor at the LSE discussed the urgent need for debt relief to fill the financing gaps not just to confront HIV, but for the many closely related social sectors (education, food, health, social protection and water), and the fact that the potential amount of debt relief available (calculated using the Debt Service Watch database) could fill all of these gaps and more. The video of the webinar can be seen here and the two reports are here and here.