What progress has been made towards reaching the millennium development goals on HIV/AIDS.

There has been progress in the fight against AIDS. More resources are now available, and the number of Africans receiving treatment has risen eightfold—albeit from a very low base—since 2003. But on current trends, the AIDS millennium development goal will not be met. What is needed is clear: countries should draw up ambitious and comprehensive plans for treatment and care, fight stigma and promote prevention; and donors must ensure that no credible, sustainable country plan goes unfunded.

The Secretary of State will be aware that the US programme known as the President's emergency plan for AIDS relief spends only 20 per cent. of its funding on prevention, at least a third of which has to be spent on abstinence before marriage programmes. What is his Department doing to address this imbalance?

We take a different approach and we are very frank about doing so. Abstinence works for those who can abstain from sex, but not everybody can, and my view is very simple: people should not die because they have sex. That is why, as part of our programme, we promote the distribution of information and condoms, so that people have the means to protect themselves from dying of this disease, which is preventable if they take the right steps.

Will my right hon. Friend ensure that HIV prevention programmes—particularly those that link HIV/AIDS with sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes, services for young people and the empowerment of women—are re-emphasised at the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly special session in New York?

Like many others, I am certainly looking forward to ensuring that that happens. One has to look at the fight against AIDS and the promotion of reproductive and sexual health together, because the two are entirely integral. I hope that my hon. Friend, in her role as a member of the all-party group dealing with this issue, can join us as part of the delegation. It is very important that we be well represented and link up with others to make precisely the point that she has put to the House today.

The whole House will be relieved that the Secretary of State was not caught up in the Prime Minister's botched reshuffle at the weekend. In view of the commitment made at Gleneagles last year to providing universal access by 2010 to treatment for AIDS—and of the reality that today one child is dying every minute from AIDS—will the Secretary of State meet pharmaceutical industry representatives to encourage them to develop paediatric drugs for children with HIV, particularly given that there is no market for, or demand for, such drugs in the west?

I am certainly happy to meet anyone at any time. Following the points that were made at previous International Development questions on this very matter, officials have put down as the main item on the agenda of the next meeting with pharmaceutical companies paediatric diagnostics and paediatric versions of antiretroviral therapies. As the House is probably aware, there has been a lack of research in this area because AIDS has not been a disease of children in the west, which is where the investment went into. Getting the pharmaceutical companies to make that investment in research is a matter of urgency, so that there are appropriate treatments for children who are HIV positive and in need of treatment.

Have my right hon. Friend and his Department had an opportunity to examine the antiretroviral programme in Botswana, where more than half of those who need such drug treatments are receiving them? Indeed, the aim is that the programme will provide 100 per cent. coverage within the next couple of years. Does he think that there are lessons to be learned from the experience of Botswana?

There certainly are lessons to be learned, not least from countries that are making progress in getting more antiretroviral treatment to those who need it. The biggest problem is simply a lack of capacity. The price of drugs is important, and their availability and having the right therapies matters enormously. But in the end, the problem will not be addressed if there are no nurses to do the tests, no doctors to say when antiretroviral drugs need to be prescribed, and no clinics, or clinics that people cannot afford to visit because they charge fees. The central issue in the fight against AIDS, and in dealing with all the other diseases that claim so many lives every day in developing countries, is working as hard as we can to ensure increased health service capacity, because on that bedrock progress will be built.

The Secretary of State will be well aware of the link between sexual exploitation and the spread of HIV/AIDS. In the light of that, what safeguards has the Department for International Development attached to its funding—whether bilateral or through multilateral agencies—to ensure that aid programmes are not used as a tool for sexual exploitation, which, as Save the Children has recently shown, is the practice in Liberia?

I share the concern that the hon. Lady expresses at the end of her question about the report put out by Save the Children yesterday on what seems to have been happening in Liberia. Sadly, that is not the first occasion when UN peacekeeping troops appear to have been involved in sexual exploitation: the House will be aware of the problems that came to light in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is essential that organisations involved in peacekeeping and development assistance ensure that that does not happen, and, if it does come to light, that those responsible are called to account.

I will reflect on the hon. Lady's first point about ensuring that we have appropriate procedures in place, but we work hard to ensure that the money that we give is used for the purpose for which it is intended and is not used as a way of exploiting young women. One has to recognise, however, that a high proportion of those who are HIV positive are young women, and that reflects fundamentally their lack of power in the societies in which they live.

What expectations does my right hon. Friend have for the forthcoming high level talks at the UN in June, which I understand are meant to put the millennium development goals back on track? Who will represent the UK?

I will lead the delegation at the United Nations General Assembly special session. We hope that the special session will adopt a plan that will enable us to see how we may move from where the world is today to achieving the "all by 2010" targets that the Gleneagles summit agreed last year and which were endorsed by the UN millennium summit. That will involve countries having plans; the resources being available and the capacity to put those plans into effect; the availability of drugs, doctors, nurses, clinics and hospitals; the fight against stigma; and community support to help people to tackle the problem. The global steering committee has put forward its proposals, and the UK played an important part in co-chairing that. The African Union meeting in Abuja last week adopted an ambitious set of targets and, when we get to New York, we will have to grapple with the issue of putting the right targets in place to reflect what countries themselves want to do and continuing to apply pressure on everybody in the system to ensure that we see progress.

I join the Secretary of State in welcoming the increase in the number of Africans receiving treatment and hope that much more progress will be made from the low base that he has described. As he has just said, there is a desperate need for more capacity, and more doctors and nurses, in Africa. What assessment does he make of the effect on treatment in Africa of the loss of 3,000 doctors and 37,000 nurses who have come to this country to work since 2000?

That undoubtedly has an effect and the hon. Gentleman will be aware of the Department of Health's code of practice. We could have a policy that banned doctors and nurses from certain developing countries from coming to work in the UK, but my view is that that would not be right. The right policy is to support developing countries in trying to address the reasons that force people with skills out of those countries. As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, those reasons include poor pay, poor working conditions, lack of opportunity for career and professional development, and lack of chances to use the skills that people have gained. That links directly to the question of capacity. If capacity can be built and more resources can be put into health care expenditure, we can begin to change over time the drift of people away from the health services in Africa to which the hon. Gentleman refers.