Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response
Asia Society and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) formally launched "Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response," the first report of the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia.
Inaugurated in June 2006 in New Delhi, the Independent Commission brought together nine of Asia's leading development economists, policy makers, public health experts, and civil society representatives working on AIDS in an effort to better understand and analyze the disease's impact on economies, societies, families, and individuals across Asia.
Commission Chairman Chakravarthi Rangarajan begins by describing the Commission's work and stresses the need for countries in Asia to act on the report's findings with tangible political and economic support at all levels. JVR Prasada Rao warns that without adequate funding for governmental and civil society health and education initiatives, HIV/AIDS will only become more prevalent throughout Asia in the coming years. Frika Chia Iskandar emphasizes the importance of civil society organizations in helping to fight the disease, particularly among vulnerable populations.
John Tedstrom, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, moderates the discussion, which also includes Dr. Mahmuda Islam and Dr. Tim Brown, two additional members of the Independent Commission- Asia Society
Bio
Tim Brown
Dr. Tim Brown is a Senior Research Fellow at the East West Center, member of the Mapping the AIDS Pandemic Network, and affiliated researcher at the Center for AIDS Research of Thai Red Cross Society.
Suzanne DiMaggio
Suzanne DiMaggio is the Executive Director of Global Policy Programs at the United Nations Association of the USA, the nation's largest grassroots foreign policy organization and leading center for policy research and public outreach on the United Nations and global issues. In that capacity, she oversees all aspects of the Association's policy studies programs and activities.
In addition to these responsibilities, she directs UNA-USA's "track two" dialogues with partner institutes in the Middle East and Northeast Asia on a range of issues, including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional security, multilateral peace and humanitarian operations and UN reform.
Frika Chia Iskandar
Frika C. Iskandar is Coordinator of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS.
Mahmuda Islam
Dr. Mahmuda Islam is a Professor of Sociology at Dhaka University, Bangladesh.
Chakravarthi Rangarajan
Dr. Chakravarthi Rangarajan is an Indian economist. He served for over a decade as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, after which he served as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between December 22, 1992 and December 21, 1997. He also served as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh from 24 November, 1997 to 3 January 2003. After demitting that office, he took charge as the Chairman of the Twelfth Finance Commission. He is currently the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.
JVR Prasada Rao
JVR Prasada Rao is the Director, Regional Support Team, Asia and the Pacific, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
John Tedstrom
Dr. John Tedstrom is Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), where he leads the world's premier international NGO uniting over 220 companies in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He is the founder of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA) and served as its President and CEO until August 1, 2006. In August 2006, GBC and TPAA initiated a process that will join the two organizations.
Before founding TPAA in July 2003, John served as Vice President for Policy Studies and Vice President for Global Security at the EastWest Institute (EWI). In those positions, he was responsible for conceptualizing and building new programs, recruiting staff, securing funding, and implementing projects in the U.S., Western Europe, and the New Independent States (NIS). While at EWI, John conceived and founded the U.S.-Russia Working Group Against HIV/AIDS along with Leo Hindery and Mikhail Margelov.
The Commission report is a stigmatizing document in itself. It denies injection safety in health care
settings in Asia as a significant driver of the epidemic while catering to iV drug use as a driver. Maybe
catering to lobbies is what they do. The upshot is UNAIDS is denial of this problem. Recent outbreak investigations
in Pakistan indicate that the epidemic is being seeded by cross border migrants and bridges to high risk groups and
the general population by needle re use by low grade health care personnel. They want to impose a set model on
all Asian countries which is questionable.
member. 
