Remember the Make Poverty History Campaign in 2005? One of the greatest achievements was the G8 leaders’ historic promise to ensure HIV treatment for all who need it by 2010.

Campaigning by ActionAid supporters played a vital role in getting this commitment in place, but we didn’t stop there. The G8 leaders made the commitment in 2005, but we wanted to see them stump up the cash that would make their words a reality.

Keeping up the pressure has resulted in in the UK government:

• Spending £1.5 billion from 2005-08 on AIDS-related work in developing countries
• Committing to spend a further £1 billion on the Global Fund between 2008 and 2015
• Committing £6 billion on health spending by 2015

Funding like this has transformed millions of people’s lives. In 2002, approximately 300,000 people living in low and middle income countries were on life-saving treatment. By 2008, this figure had risen to four million - more than a tenfold increase over five years.

Watch our film of Ugandan AIDS activist, Beatrice Were, telling her story of how treatment transforms lives.

Women and HIV & AIDS

The AIDS virus is now the leading cause of death for young women globally. In Africa, a young woman is up to six times more likely to become infected than a man of the same age, and HIV and AIDS are both a consequence and a cause of violence against women. These statistics are truly shocking, but women are often overlooked in the fight against HIV and AIDS. 

Our Invisible women campaign successfully pushed our government to put women’s rights at the heart of its new HIV and AIDS strategy in 2008. A fantastic achievement, but their commitments on violence against women were an area of weakness.

Thousands of you contributed a shoe to our Put your foot down campaign, an unusual campaign action but one that clearly made the point to the UK government that enough was enough. Find out what happened to the shoes here.