Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim Sunday decried the low-level of awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa as a whole, which he said has inhibited discussions about the pandemic and the fight against its spread at national and community levels.

Salim disclosed that this was the finding of a survey the OAU secretariat conducted in the past three years with visits to a number of member states and discussions with the leadership in the public, private and civic sectors on the progress and constraints encountered in dealing with HIV/AIDS challenges.

In a statement to the opening session of the 2nd African Development Forum (ADF 20000) convened to deliberate on the challenges of the AIDS pandemic to African development, Salim highlighted actions taken by the OAU at summit level since 1992 in Dakar, Senegal, where the pandemic was publicly recognised by all member states.

Subsequent decisions called for a "national policy framework" to be adopted by members states by the end of 1994 to guide and support appropriate response to the needs of affected children, covering social, legal, ethical, medical and human rights issues.

"Regrettably, many of these commitments have not been translated into action," he said. He stated that the findings of the OAU secretariat's consultations in the past three years revealed that there were still "a lot more that can be done about creating awareness about AIDS."

"In most of the countries visited, the level of preparation to fight this pandemic was very low, with insufficient moralisation for developing a solid constituency," he added.

He stated that this had contributed "to lack of transparency and inhibited discussion about HIV/AIDS both at national and community levels.

"In fact, most communities felt leaderless in terms of how to deal with the pandemic and develop coping mechanisms," Salim said, adding that this was now beginning to change.

He expressed the hope that the gathering would point out the challenges Africa continued to face with the continued rapid spread of the pandemic, and said the OAU will stay on the frontline.

To this end, Salim said an OAU extraordinary summit will be convened early next year in Abuja, Nigeria, which will be devoted to addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

"The mere fact that a special summit is being convened to address this subject demonstrates the commitment of our leaders in seeking a way forward. it also represents the positive change that has been recently evolving within and among African states in dealing with this issue," he said.

Deliberations of the conference for the next four days will focus on three major issues: the leadership role and approaches for an effective HIV/AIDS response, AIDS and development, and learning from country response and building on lessons learned from intensified response to the pandemic.

The conference is expected to come up with a consensus statement when it winds up on 7 December on actions to be taken at regional, national and local levels to check the spread of AIDS and the resources needed for prevention campaigns, treatment programmes and facilities for counselling and support of AIDS victims and their families.