Leading members of the global HIV/AIDS community and African NGOs meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Tuesday to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on Africa's rural populations.

The meeting is convened by the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA), a body set up last year to track the long term impact of the pandemic in Africa.

This "CHGA Interactive" session will focus on the way rural communities are being affected by HIV/AIDS, on the specific pressures experienced by women and ways to mitigate the problems. It will also discuss the problems of maintaining food security in the context of severe HIV epidemics.

This is the third CHGA Interactive. The first CHGA Interactive was held in Mozambique in March this year. The second, in July, took place in Botswana and focused on treatment and care of people living with HIV/AIDS. Two further sessions are planned for Cameroon and Ghana. The goal of the CHGA Interactive is to exchange views with civil society organizations on the issues of AIDS and governance, informing civil society about the work of CHGA, and obtaining civil society inputs into CHGA's own deliberations and recommendations.

CHGA's final report is due to be submitted to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in June 2005. The Commission is chaired by K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa and its patrons are the former president of Zambia, HE Kenneth Kaunda, and the former prime minister of Mozambique, HE Pascoal Mocumbi.

The Commission includes prominent international figures among its members, including Joy Phumaphi, the World Health Organisation's assistant Director General, Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS and Richard Feachem, head of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.