Noting “African leadership on AIDS is on the rise while, with some exceptions, political and financial commitment in the wealthiest nations has been stalled since the end of the last decade,” Rob Lovelace, a senior fellow with the Trade Union Sustainable Development Unit, and Gemma Oberth, a senior researcher for AIDS Accountability International in Cape Town, South Africa, write in the Huffington Post’s “Big Push” blog, “Collective global action is what’s needed to” continue “hard won progress” against the disease. They state that the recently concluded G20 and the June G8 summits “raise reasonable questions about whether political leadership on AIDS is flagging in many of the world’s leading economies,” noting “the G20 accountability report illustrates the premier forum on the global economy continues to neglect health issues.”

“Conversely, efforts to intensify African leadership and commitment may be just hitting stride,” Lovelace and Oberth continue, highlighting the 2013 African Union/NEPAD Accountability Report on Africa-G8 Partnership Commitments, “the first-ever themed accountability report on delivering results to end AIDS, [tuberculosis (TB)] and malaria in Africa,” as an example of progress. “We will know soon enough if the world’s wealthiest countries are ready to get back in the game,” they write, noting the upcoming U.N. Special Event “to take stock of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) progress and kick off the process of finalizing the post-2015 agenda,” as well as “the 4th Replenishment of the [Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] that takes place before years-end.” They conclude, “Building on forward progress like the 25 percent decline in new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa is unlikely without the continued partnership between Africa and the Global North” (9/18).