Introduction - Chapter 1
HIV is an unprecedented global development challenge, and one that has already caused too much hardship, illness and death. To date, the epidemic has claimed the lives of 20 million people, and over 37 million worldwide are now living with HIV. In 2003, almost 5 million people became newly infected with HIV, the greatest number in any one year since the beginning of the epidemic. AIDS is a crisis that is extraordinary in its scale. To stand any chance of effectively responding to the epidemic, we have to treat it both as an emergency and as a long-term development issue.
Social, cultural, economic and legal factors exacerbate the spread of HIV and heighten the impact of HIV. In almost all cases, poor and socially marginalised people are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV and its consequences. The UN Millennium Declaration, and the goals it sets, highlight the interconnectedness between development goals and the need to address the causes of vulnerability to HIV and its impacts, by alleviating poverty through sustainable development, the promotion of gender equality and access to education. The overwhelming burden of the epidemic is borne by developing countries, where the vast majority of the people most affected by, and vulnerable to, HIV do not have access to even a basic set of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and programmes.
In this way, the Code seeks to help NGOs to: