G8 Finance Ministers meet in Essen, Germany on February 9th-12th.

As AIDS Campaigners we worked really hard in the lead up to the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles to secure the commitment to Universal Access to Treatment by 2010. 18 months on, despite committing themselves to this historic target, the G8 leaders have not produced a funding plan to show where the money needed to make 2010 happen will come from. If we are to achieve Universal Access then a funding plan would be a good place to start! Developing countries cannot scale up their health systems and infrastructure without knowing where the money is coming from.

At the G8 Finance Ministers’ Meeting next month, it is essential that they commit themselves to producing a plan. After all the hard work of 2005, we as student campaigners in the UK are determined that this monumentous target should not fall by the wayside.

Take Action

With only a month to go before the meeting takes place we need to concentrate our efforts on the German Finance Minister, Peer Steinbrueck who will be chairing the conference and setting the agenda. Gordon Brown has indicated that he will not be able to set the agenda alone, and so it’s important that we make Peer Steinbrueck aware that campaigners across the world are watching him and the other G8 leaders and want to see concerted action not just rhetoric.

Letter Writing Campaign to Steinbrueck

In order to make the biggest impact we want every society to send a personalised letter from their University Society to the German Finance Minister. Because the meeting is so soon, we need to be realistic about what we can achieve. For those of you who are snowed under with exams etc, and can’t find someone to take this on then you can just edit the letter by inserting your society’s name and post it off. For those of you who’ve got a bit more time on your hands then it would be fantastic to get as many signatures as possible to your letter.

To download a sample letter for your society to edit and send click here: Letter to Steinbrueck v.2
For an advice sheet on holding a mass letter signing click here: Mass Letter signing tips

Click here to email Steinbrueck directly.

We will be sending a letter to Gordon Brown, notifying him that Stop AIDS Societies around the UK will be taking this action.

In order for the letter to be effective it’s crucial that you send it by 1st February!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.