The partnership, promoted by the United Nations HIV/AIDS Program (UNAIDS), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to end AIDS in children and ensure that no child living with HIV is deprived of treatment by 2030.
Worldwide, only half (52 percent) of children living with HIV receive life-saving treatment, a far lower percentage than adults (76 percent).
The establishment of the new Global Partnership to End Childhood AIDS by 2030 was announced by leading figures at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada.
The partnership also includes civil society organizations such as the Global Network of People Living with HIV, national governments of the most affected countries and international partners.
Twelve countries joined this alliance: Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
"No child should be born or grow up with HIV and no child with HIV should go untreated," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO.
"That only half of children with HIV receive antiretrovirals is a scandal and a stain on our collective conscience. The Global Partnership to End AIDS in Children provides an opportunity to renew our commitment to children and their families to come together, to speak and act with a common objective and in solidarity with all mothers, children and adolescents", he added.
