Yearbook of the United Nations, 2000. Part 3, Economic and social questions. Chapter 13, Health, food and nutrition

Abstract

In 2000, the United Nations continued to take action to promote human health, coordinate food aid and food security and support research in nutrition. The total number of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide at the end of 2000 was 36.1 million, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Some 5.3 million new infections and an estimated 3 million deaths due to the epidemic were recorded, representing the highest annual total of AIDS deaths ever. UNAIDS effectively promoted HIV/AIDS as a priority on national agendas and emphasized the importance of leadership in all sectors. It supported decentralized planning efforts at the district and community levels and promoted synergy with other multilateral and bilateral partners within the framework of national strategies. In the Millennium Declaration adopted by the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, held in September, world leaders committed themselves to halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015; providing special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS; and helping Africa build its capacity to tackle the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other infectious diseases. The General Assembly decided to convene a special session in June 2001 to review and address the problem of HIV/AIDS as a matter of urgency. The United Nations continued to be concerned with tobacco and its ill effects. Based on current smoking trends, it was predicted that tobacco would be the leading cause of disease by the 2020s, resulting in about one in eight deaths, a proportion greater than from any other single cause. The Ad Hoc Inter-Agency Task Force on Tobacco Control, at its second session, decided that inter-agency partnerships should focus on the economics of tobacco control, including supply and production issues. In October, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control considered draft elements and provisional texts. The World Food Programme—a joint undertaking of the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations provided food aid to 83 million people. Total quantities of food provided amounted to 3.5 million tons, an increase of 3 per cent over the previous year and the highest since the record high of 1992.