News AU Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria opens (Jul 16, 2013) The African Union Special Summit of Heads of State and Government, held under the theme, “Ownership, Accountability and Sustainability of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Response in Africa: Past, Present and the Future”, opened on Monday (July 15) at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Nigeria. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Chairperson of the African Union, thanked the Federal Republic of Nigeria for organizing the Special Summit together with the African Union, the United Nations Agencies and other development partners. He expressed his confidence that the Special Summit would afford the opportunity to renew the commitment to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Prime Minister said the main objective of the Special Summit was to review achievements in reversing the impact of these three diseases over the past decade and the further challenges. It was also a good opportunity to assess the state of maternal, neonatal and child health care in Africa and reinvigorate commitments to health related Millennium Development Goals. Prime Minister Hailemariam said Africa`s collective aspiration for socio-economic transformation needed a healthy and productive population. Human capital was central to unleashing Africa’s potential for socio-economic growth and development. Expanding universal access to health services was critically important. He noted the tremendous achievements registered in combating the three diseases: “22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have reduced new HIV infection by more than 25% and made considerable reduction in AIDS related mortality.” Some countries, including Ethiopia, had reduced incidence of HIV infection by more than 50%; 9 countries were well on track towards achieving 75% reduction in malaria case incidence by 2015. These achievements, he said, were made possible by strong country ownership and leadership, active community involvement and unprecedented global support. Challenges, however remained to achieve the objectives outlined in the Abuja call for Action as well as the health related MDG targets, especially in reducing maternal and child deaths, and expanding access to malaria and TB diagnosis and treatment. The Prime Minister emphasized the need to adopt the right policies, programs and strategies and demonstrate the necessary political will. Active community participation was very critical to ensure universal access to health services and reach out to the poor and marginalized sections of the populations. He noted that this was precisely what Ethiopia has been trying to do through its flagship health extension program, deploying 38,000 Health Extension Workers, almost all of them women, across the whole country. The results included significant reductions in the rate of new HIV infection and in numbers of women dying in childbirth as well as increases in numbers of children immunized. The Prime Minister said improving the well-being of populations demanded huge resources, and he called upon Africa`s development partners, whose role in channeling financial resources had been one of the key factors to successes during the last decade, to increase quality, flexible and predictable financing to assist the continent and its people.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 14:19:31 +0000
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