[NEWS] Financing Dispossession: China’s Opium Substitution Programme in Northern Burma

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By Kevin Woods & Tom Kramer

 

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Contrary to official rhetoric China’s opium crop substitution program has very little to do with providing mechanisms to decrease reliance on poppy cultivation or provide alternative livelihoods for ex-poppy growers.

This week the Transnational Institute published a comprehensive report documenting new developments at the Chinese Burmese border.They find that China’s opium crop substitution program has very little to do with providing mechanisms to decrease reliance on poppy cultivation or provide alternative livelihoods for ex-poppy growers. They call for investments related to opium substitution to be carried out in a more sustainable, transparent, accountable, and equitable fashion

You can read the whole report here or read on for the Executive Summary.

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[NEWS] UNAIDS China Chief Speaks Out on Real-Name HIV Testing

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In a brief interview with 新京报 Mark Stirling, Country Coordinator for UNAIDS China, points out that confidentiality is the key to the success of HIV testing policies. Rampant discrimination is one of the key factors that discourage people from taking HIV tests. Unfortunately, institutional discrimination by health care providers and employers are widespread in China, and many key affected populations (sex workers, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men) also face stigma related to their identities. Stirling observes that while public education on non-discrimination is important, the revision of discriminatory laws and policies is also essential in order to reduce institutional discrimination. 
Stirling points out that in one Beijing community testing center, 128 out of 351 people surveyed decided not to take the HIV test after being told they would have to give their real names.  He calls for support for HIV testing by community-based organizations, especially as a way to reach key affected populations. You can read the full text of the interview (in Chinese) here.
Please join us in signing the petition here to call for stronger confidentiality protections and stronger protections against discrimination.

[NEWS] China Expands Essential Medicines List, but No ARVs

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China’s Ministry of Health announces an expansion of its essential medicines list. Looks like there will be increased access to cancer treatments, and a series of drug cost cuts. In 2002, anti-retrovirals (ARVs) were added to the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, but no plans yet for China to add them to the list. China currently provides a limited number of first-line ARVs under the Four Frees and One Care Policy.

[COMMENTARY] To Fix the Global Fund, Get Funds to the Grassroots

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By Sara L.M. Davis

In his recent New York Times op-ed, Paul Farmer calls for increased funding for
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He’s right, but to
really put muscle into the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund also needs
to change its top-down approach to funding, given the reality that HIV/AIDS
specifically targets the most marginalized people in any society.

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