Number 3 1998
Department of Public Information
Addressing HIV:
Do Conferences and papers Help?
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Despite their consensus on the essential role of conferences in assembling and re-energizing people who work within the HIV epidemic, my colleagues identified a number of negative factors associated with conferences. First and foremost are the often vertiginous expenses in organizing large international conferences and producing papers. This is something for which the United Nations system has been criticized in many areas of work. One colleague suggested that, in the context of the United Nations, current cost-cutting and budgetary constraints may force people to work more effectively in organizing conferences and papers, and to waste less time and money. Other respondents to my survey maintained that it is extremely difficult to measure the impact of a conference or a paper on the HIV epidemic. "Did anyone not get infected, not lose their rights, get access to treatment, because of an international conference? Probably not", offered a colleague in France. Others expressed objections to large, comprehensive conferences with several tracks going on simultaneously. Some felt strongly that the fora which really "helped" were much more likely to be consultations, workshops and seminars, as these could more easily focus on capacity development and skill-building.
To further supplement the valuable thoughts of my colleagues, and to conclude, I would like to make two final points. First, experience and personal conviction have convinced me that everyone working within the HIV epidemic must at least attempt to contribute to alleviating the many different types of suffering and pressures endured by people living with HIV and AIDS. Particularly unhelpful in the context of conferences are extremely eclectic papers which dehumanize people living with and affected by HIV, treating them as almost purely anthropological specimens to be studied and commented on, rather than as partners and as human beings with genuine medical, legal, economic, psychological and emotional needs. The second point is that the United Nations and other funding institutions must not believe that the act of sponsoring conferences and commissioning papers are sufficient to address HIV. Many non-governmental, community-based and AIDS-service organizations the world over, despite a genuine need and willingness to dive into the heart of the thorniest HIV-related problems, struggle every day to exist on what little money they can raise from donors. HIV and all of its co-factors—poverty, gender disparities, social injustice, insufficient or discriminatory legal systems, and sexual health—are very real problems and need real solutions. The United Nations system and other donors must listen to the people and organizations working to provide these solutions, maintain a dialogue with them and ensure that they receive concrete support for their daily work.
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