The HIV/AIDS pandemic was identified as one of the major threats to food security at the WFS: fyl. It is addressed by one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is closely linked to several others. Member Nations have stressed the need for adequate agriculture sector responses to mitigate the impact of the disease. Several FAO bodies, including CFS, COAG and the two most recent African Regional Conferences have urged FAO to pursue analysis of the links between food insecurity and HIV/AIDS. On two occasions, Members of the Programme Committee have requested consideration of establishing a PAIA on HIV/AIDS.

Therefore, the new PAIA (with the self-evident acronym of “AIDS”) is to coordinate normative outputs, technical assistance and policy guidance given to countries regarding the ways in which the agriculture sector (including forestry and fisheries) can contribute to mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It should also lead to corporate information products on HIV/AIDS.

In fact, the PAIA status would only consolidate cooperation among the units which have been working so far on HIV/AIDS through an informal working group. To date, 14 FAO technical divisions are involved in areas as diverse as: nutrition, agro-forestry, agro-biodiversity, livestock, fisheries and emergencies. Indeed, the nature of the interactions between HIV/AIDS and food insecurity requires that the interventions be inter-disciplinary. The above coordinating mechanism will be strengthened and the PAIA will be supported by the current corporate focal point on HIV/AIDS (SDW), especially through Programme Entity 252P1. This arrangement would increase the visibility of work on HIV/AIDS and assist with the intent of becoming a UNAIDS co-sponsor, thus improving prospects of receiving significant amounts of extra-budgetary resources.

[extract from MTP 2006-2011]