In a world where over 33 million people are living with AIDS it is imperative to address the human resources for health (HRH) crisis.

Global progress on HIV/AIDS is real: 5.2 million people are receiving antiretroviral therapy in middle-income and resource-poor countries, which is remarkable if you look at where we were five or ten years ago.

Let’s face it: we’re in one of the worst economic crises we’ve seen in decades, and HIV funding has flat-lined.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization released “Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention.”

HIV/AIDS is the health crisis that truly galvanized international attention. But it wasn’t always this way.

Earlier this week, I wrote about realities of childbirth in rural Ethiopia, of seeing a woman in agonizing labor, a woman suffering from obstetric fistula, and the dream of another young woman, Zanab, of becoming a fistula doctor.

Adet Health Center is only 40 kilometers from the city of Bahir Dar but the road is muddy, narrow, and full of pot holes, so the journey takes an hour and a half.

IntraHealth worked with Ethiopian community organizations to set up Mothers’ Support Groups, so that women living with HIV can support each other in living healthy lives and, if pregnant, taking steps to ensure their babies are born virus-free. This is the story of Meaza Asefa, a Mothers’ Support Group member.

Recently, Foreign Policy published “The Long Emergency,” an analysis of the future of the United States’ HIV/AIDS programming and funding as the Obama administration reshapes its global health agenda.

Until the final match on July 11, much of the world’s attention is on South Africa as it hosts the World Cup, awash in swirling colors, patriotic chants, dramatic last-minute goals and saves, and yes, buzzing, monotonous vuvuzelas.