Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor EU presidency: Focus on Africa Avoiding duplication of European aid efforts FAO praises and censures food aid Africans want EPA-talks extension Uganda: debating circumcision DEG achieves record result UN tests reform in additional countries DIE course for university graduates "Pathologic equilibrium" between Mozambique and its donors German ministry opposes GTZ and KfW proposal 03/2007		Uganda: debating circumcision A debate has flared up in Uganda over male circumcision as a means to prevent AIDS. According to the UN news agency IRIN, Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president, worrys that recent research results might prove harmful in the fight against the immunodeficiency pandemic. Museveni complained that some people now claim that male circumcision prevents AIDS even in the case of reckless behaviour. Such messages send wrong signals to the local communities, breeding apathy in the fight against AIDS. Several weeks ago, researchers in the USA concluded that the risk of becoming infected with HIV is much lower for circumcised men than it is for uncircumcised men. The scientists stressed, however, that circumcision only offers added protection and cannot replace other preventive measures (see D+C/E+Z, 2/2007, p. 49). Uganda is considered a model country in the fight against AIDS because in the past 15 years it has succeeded in significantly reducing the infection rate. Museveni pointed out that this success is due to his governments’ clear messages of AIDS being a fatal disease which can only be prevented by responsible sexual behaviour. (ell)