World AIDS Day
Message on World AIDS Day 2007 - Dr Mark Collins, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation
This year marks the 20th World AIDS Day. At this time it is crucial to emphasise that AIDS has become much more than a health concern. It is an issue that threatens the future stability and development of the entire Commonwealth. Women, children and young people are being hit the hardest. While progress has been made in combating the spread of HIV, we 
still have a long way to go. The challenges posed by AIDS can only be met if governments, civil society, the private sector, local communities and individuals work together.
It is therefore appropriate that Leadership is the theme for this year's World AIDS Day. Leadership is critical, both within each of the sectors with a part to play as well as in bringing diverse partners together in common cause. The Commonwealth Foundation has led the development of an international network of civil society organisations that links people affected by and living with HIV and AIDS. This network aims to foster and facilitate greater co-operation between governments and civil society. It works to ensure that national HIV and AIDS interventions are designed and implemented in partnership with civil society, as well as making certain that civil society interventions complement national HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care efforts across the Commonwealth.
At the recent Commonwealth People's Forum in Uganda, civil society members from around the Commonwealth participated in a workshop focussing on how prevention education can be effectively used to contain the spread of HIV and AIDS. The participants produced a civil society statement with recommendations for Commonwealth Heads of Government. The need for innovative prevention education stems from the ignorance and stigma associated with HIV and AIDS. However, knowledge is often not enough to change behaviour. Effective prevention education must address cultural factors in order to generate the necessary attitudes, skills and motivation to bring about change. Innovative prevention education is the best kind of social vaccine to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. Commonwealth civil society members also placed equal importance on providing greater access to HIV treatment, care and support.
We can all heed the call for leadership in fighting AIDS, from the individual to the international level. Every single Commonwealth citizen has a role to play. We at the Commonwealth Foundation, in partnership with governments and civil society, will continue to take action and further strengthen our endeavours against AIDS.
World AIDS Day should not be the only day in the year that we think about HIV and AIDS. For many across the Commonwealth, it is a part of their daily life and cannot be ignored. Governments, civil society – including stakeholders from the arts and culture, the media and the business sectors need to generate individual and collective commitment and sustainable action. This must be directed at preventing new infections and meeting the Millennium Development Goals and targets set at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS.
The time to act is now.
