International Forum “MDG6 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” finished, which was held in Moscow and devoted to the issues of combating infectious diseases in the region. Marina Akulova, a Russian Red Cross Board member, participated in it.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, greeting International Forum participants, said: «People’s health has always been a key asset in any country. Economic and social development both at the national level and worldwide depends on how successfully key public health issues are addressed, such as combating HIV\AIDS and other dangerous infectious diseases… HIV\AIDS pandemic is the most serious threat to people’s lives and communities’ development. The problem is urgent not only for Asia and Africa, but also for European countries. Disease prevalence rates, which have been recently fixed in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, are of the highest… In the recent decade, Russia has been undertaking considerable efforts to counteract HIV\AIDS at national and international levels, being a member of G8, G20 and an international donor. Public Health was one of the G8 priorities when Russia held the chair in 2006. Combating infectious diseases, especially HIV\AIDS, was defined as one of the priorities in “The Concept of Russia's Participation in International Development Assistance” approved by the President of the Russian Federation”.
The Forum was held in partnership with the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, World Bank, and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The participants discussed how to turn the Millennium Development Goal 6 (MDG-6) into reality, which is connected with counteracting HIV\AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases, and a strategy to provide support to the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia to achieve the indicators approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the sphere of combating epidemics by 2015. Besides, Forum participants were told about the results of work performed by the Federal Service for Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare in regard to providing support programs to the CIS countries in the sphere of counteracting flu, polio, tropical diseases, and other International Obligation programs undertaken and implemented by the Russian Federation to support developing countries to combat epidemics. In plenary sessions with the participation of the Federal Service for Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, a special attention was paid to the development of regional partnership procedures, aimed at raising program efficiency to combat infectious diseases, including The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Forum participants approved of a Plan of Action to strengthen partnership to achieve the MDG-6 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Plan defined certain objectives that are to be addressed by countries-recipients and countries-donors, international organizations, and the civil society to provide support to combat infectious diseases in the region, so that the formulated goals will have been achieved by 2015. 

Russian participants, which represented NGOs from all over the country, raised the question about measures undertaken by the RF Government to develop a sustainable and strong civil sector.
Assistant to the RF President, Arkady Dvorkovich, said that one of the Government priorities is to encourage a non-profit sector development. The Government has planned certain steps to support socially-oriented NGOs, as their work is considered as a key factor to build a social unity and possibilities for all society members to develop.