At current rate of progress none of the agreed targets will be met; the general assembly debates HIV / AIDS.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the General Assemblys high-level meeting on 22 September 2003 with sobering news. In 2001 the Declaration of Commitment that set concrete goals for containing the spread of HIV/AIDS and aiding its victims was approved. By 2005 "we should have cut by a quarter the number of young people infected with HIV in the worst-affected nations; we should have halved the rate at which infants contract HIV; and we should have comprehensive care programmes in place" Mr. Annan said. However at the current rate of progress none of the agreed targets would be met and "we are still only half way to the $10 billion a year that is needed by 2005. We have come a long way but not far enough.... We cannot claim that competing challenges are more important or more urgent. We cannot accept that something else came up that forced us to place AIDS on the back burner. Something else will always come up." (excerpt)