HIV/AIDS has become part of the permanent condition in human settlements around the world especially in Africa and Asia. The highest incidence of HIV/AIDS is in cities and towns. There is growing consensus that strategies to reduce HIV/AIDS must go beyond health interventions because of its severe social consequences. The disease exacerbates poverty, creates orphans, marginalises people and stigmatises those afflicted and their families. It has also weakened the ability of local urban institutions to deliver services because so many employees are affected at every level of society.

It is for this reason that last year, UN-HABITAT established a new initiative to involve local governments in the struggle. Local governments are the authorities best placed to lead, mobilise and co-ordinate a wider response at the local level in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The initiative forms part of the Urban Management Programme (UMP). The UMP’s overall aim is to develop and apply urban management knowledge and to promote inclusive urban governance to alleviate poverty, improve environmental conditions and enhance economic growth in urban areas.

UN-HABITAT, through its urban mandate, is ideally placed in the UN system to take on HIV/AIDS using its wide network of partners, particularly at the municipal level in towns and cities around the world. City administrations are often ill-equipped to manage local strategies because of fragmentation of services, weak administrative processes and poor dialogue between civil society, local and national government.