Over the past five years, the world has made tremendous progress in fighting AIDS -- but at the same time the costs of the response are skyrocketing and threaten to rise to as much as $30 billion a year, precisely at a time when funding is becoming tight because of economic recession and competing priorities like global warming. This raises a series of difficult questions that senior officials from the most affected countries and their international funding partners must urgently answer:

• How much money will be needed to fight AIDS in the coming years? How big is the price tag for an effective program of prevention, treatment, and orphan care?
• How can governments in low and middle income countries spend their money smarter on AIDS, in order to bring down the number of new infections and extend life-saving treatment? What can be done to make AIDS spending more efficient?
• Who will pay for AIDS programs in the most affected countries over the next decade? What is the appropriate share of the financing burden for national governments, donors, NGOs, and others?

This moderated panel discussion posed key questions to the panelists and allowed the panelists to exchange their views with one another and the audience.

The session began with a short overview of the main findings of the report of the aids2031 Costs and Financing task force “Cost and Choices”, and an explanation of the major challenges facing governments and donors today (Robert Hecht, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute and the main author/editor of the report).

David de Ferranti, founder and President of Results for Development moderated the session.

Panelists included:

• Dr. David Apuuli, Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission 
• Dr. Benson Chirwa, Director General of the Zambia National AIDS Council 
• Prof. Rifat Atun, Director for Strategy, Performance and Evaluation Cluster, Global Fund 
• Dr. Paul Bouey, Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator

Watch Highlights from the Session.