Addis Ababa — The Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA) chaired by K.Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will be officially launched on Wednesday 17 September 2003 in Addis Ababa at an event that will be attended by world leaders, including former President Kenneth Kaunda and Prime Minister Pascoal Mucumbi of Mozambique, two of the Patrons of CHGA.

CHGA is an initiative announced in February by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

With its Secretariat at the ECA, CHGA's mandate is to study the impacts of HIV/AIDS on state structures and Africa's economic development. "The core challenge for CHGA research is to capture the complex linkages between human capacity losses at the micro level (households), their relationship to the core indicators of economic growth at the macro level and crucially, their likely implications for inter-generational survival of families, communities and states", the Commission said in a statement.

CHGA's work will culminate in a Final Report in June 2005. The Report will analyze the governance and development threats posed by the pandemic and contain policy options for mounting an effective response.

CHGA will also address the implications of scaling up anti-retroviral therapies for health systems capacity and structures in Africa and advise African policy makers on how to address the profound structural impacts that HIV/AIDS is having on their abilities to tackle Africa's development challenges.

It will focus on a range of issues, including the requirements for resource mobilization, economic policy choices and capacity building. The Report will also be a key tool for further advocacy and policy engagement.

CHGA's advocacy work will be channeled through the 20 Commissioners appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to support Mr. K.Y. Amoako.

They are the Director-General of OPEC Fund, Seyyid Abdulai, the Vice President of the National Assembly of Senegal, Abdoulaye Bathily, the Vice Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana, Mary Chinery Hesse; the former Minister of Health of Senegal, Awa Coll-Seck; Haile Debas, Professor of Surgery; Cheik Modibo Diara, the CEO of the African Virtual University; Richard Feachem, the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and Marc Gentilini, the President of the French Red Cross.

Others are Eveline Herfkens, Mr. Annan's Coordinator for the MDG Campaign and Omar Kabbaj, President of the African Development Bank; Milly Katana, Advocacy Officer at the Health Rights Action Group, Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop of Kenya, Madeleine Mukamabano of Radio France International, Joy Phumaphi, Assistant Director General of WHO, Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Mamphele Ramphele, Managing Director, World Bank.

CHGA also has Ismail Serageldin of Bibliotheca Alexandria, Paulo Teixera, the Director in charge of HIV/AIDS at WHO, Bassari Toure, Minister of Economic and Finance of Mali and Alan Whiteside, Director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division as Commissioners.

For more information on the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, please contact Yinka Adeyemi, tel +251-1 44 35 37, fax 251-1-21 22 33, E-mail: yadeyemi@uneca.org CHGA documents are available on www.uneca.org/chga

Issued by the ECA Communication Team P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 Fax: +251-1-51 03 65 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org Web: www.uneca.org