Interview with Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy

Abstract

Stephen Lewis is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. In an interview with PlusNews, Lewis said that gender inequality, ineffective leadership and lack of resources were key issues facing the world in the battle against HIV/AIDS in Africa. In Part One of the interview, he said that although there was much greater awareness of HIV/AIDS throughout the continent he still felt “extremely angry” at the inertia in the response to the disease. Lewis expressed optimism that the tide of the pandemic could be turned if the necessary commitment could be found to reproduce successful individual projects in many African countries on a larger scale. He also discussed the role of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, and the issue of generic and brand name drugs. In Part Two, Lewis highlights the importance of political leadership - represented by Botswana - in the fight against the epidemic. He also describes the failure of the international community to act timeously and effectively against HIV/AIDS in Africa as “one of the most astonishing moral lapses in post-war history”.