The University of Natal’s Professor Alan Whiteside and World Bank managing
officials Mamphele Ramphela are the only two South Africans who have been
appointed to a high-profile Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa
(CHGA).

The 20-person commission, which is chaired by Executive Secretary of the
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) K Amoako, was established at the behest of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Launched last week (17 September) in Addis Ababa, its mandate is to study
the impacts of HIV/AIDS on African state structures and economic development
and identify threats to governance.

It will report back on its findings and make policy recommendations in June
2005.

“The core challenge for CHGA research is to capture the complex linkages
between human capacity losses at households, their relationship to the core
indicators of economic growth at the macro level and crucially, their likely
implications for inter-generational survival of families, communities and
states,” according a statement from the Commission.

The commission will also research the implications of scaling up
anti-retroviral treatment in Africa and how African countries can mobilise
resources to address the structural impacts of HIV/AIDS.

Other commissioners are: Director-General of OPEC Fund, Seyyid Abdulai; Vice President of the National Assembly of Senegal, Abdoulaye Bathily; Vice
Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana, Mary
Chinery Hesse; former Senegalese health minister Awa Coll-Seck; Haile Debas,
Professor of Surgery; Cheik Modibo Diara, the CEO of the African Virtual
University.

Richard Feachem, the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB
and Malaria; Marc Gentilini, President of the French Red Cross; UN official
Eveline Herfkens; Omar Kabbaj, President of the African Development Bank;
Milly Katana of the Health Rights Action Group, Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop
of Kenya, Madeleine Mukamabano of Radio France International, Joy Phumaphi, Assistant Director General of WHO, UNAIDS director Peter Piot; Ismail Serageldin of Bibliotheca Alexandria, Paulo Teixera, WHO’s HIV/AIDS director and Bassari Toure, Minister of Economic and Finance of Mali, are also
represented.