India-Canada AIDS Control Project cancelled !?

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India-Canada AIDS Control Project cancelled

Funding cut to University of Manitoba's HIV/AIDS program in India

January 10, 2005

(CP)

Losing funding from the Canadian International Development Agency will

irreparably set back a University of Manitoba HIV/AIDS prevention

program in India, says the project's director.

" If we have to pull the plug here, it will be like going back to the

drawing board, " said Dr. Blanchard, director of the India-Canada

AIDS Control Project, from his home in Bangalore, India.

The university project is one of the largest of several dozen

bilateral aid projects that were cancelled by the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) after India's national

government announced in early 2004 the country would only accept

official government-to-government aid from an exclusive list of six

donors. Canada was not on that list.

The policy was designed in large part to help wean India off foreign

aid and turn the country from a net recipient of aid into a net donor.

Following national elections in May, the new Indian government

reinstated Canada along with other European nations, as long as they

made a minimum $25 million US annual contribution.

While CIDA declined to resume the government-to-government aid,

Blanchard said he and others involved with the project suggested the

agency flow its money directly to the school, or through another

non-governmental agency.

But CIDA responded it could not provide funding on that basis,

Blanchard said.

Though the HIV infection rate in India is much lower than in some

African countries, the sheer size of the population—1.1 billion, or

more than 15 percent of the world's population—has infectious disease

experts scrambling to halt the spread of the disease.

The official infection rate is just under one percent, but Blanchard

said in some states it runs as high as five percent of the adult

population.

In those areas, HIV/AIDS is already the leading cause of death and

without aggressive intervention, it's possible infection rates could

double, he said.

Dr. Gardner, the university's executive director of

international relations, said he is not aware of any legal or

administrative reason why CIDA could not continue to flow money

directly to the school to continue the project

http://www.fftimes.com/index.php/6/2005-01-10/19710