GENEVA/MONACO, 11 April 2024— Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of UNAIDS—the organization leading the global fight against AIDS—met with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and HSH Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and government officials to strengthen Monaco’s collaboration with UNAIDS.

“Monaco is a long-standing and valued partner of UNAIDS. We continue to work together on our broad programme and also in key countries,” said Ms Byanyima. “What we particularly value is how Monaco shows such innovation in fighting HIV, and we learn from each other.”

During a visit to the Fight AIDS Monaco Association, Ms Byanyima and HSH Princess Stéphanie and Ms Byanyima met with volunteers, staff and members of the Association. Fight AIDS Monaco, founded in 2004 by Princess Stéphanie, supports people living with and affected by HIV in Monaco and the neighbouring area. They also fund projects in Madagascar, Burundi, South Africa, Mauritius, and more exceptionally Ukraine, Lebanon and Morocco.

“My heartfelt congratulations to the Fight AIDS Monaco team, celebrating your 20^th year – an important milestone- and one that shows your sustained commitment to ending AIDS,” said Ms Byanyima. “It is organizations like yours that make a difference for people’s overall well-being: a safe space to share, kindness and compassion when it is most needed.”

As they gathered around an AIDS memorial quilt, Princess Stéphanie said, “We are a small country, but we can achieve great things.” She then added, “Our foundation is a place where everyone is treated with dignity and without judgement. Fight AIDS Monaco is about giving life.”

Ms Byanyima also thanked Princess Stéphanie for her unwavering engagement as a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and expressed her appreciation for the Princess’s work to address HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

Despite huge progress in the HIV response, globally AIDS still claimed a life every minute in 2022. Monaco’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Christophe Robino, stressed that his government’s low cases of new HIV infections was a victory but one not to be taken for granted.

“This is a cause that we need to tackle daily and one day we will be able to end AIDS but we must keep talking about it while it still exists,” Mr Robino said.

Since 1988, Monaco has been implementing an integrated policy on ending HIV as a public health threat. The policy has resulted in free, anonymous HIV screening centres as well as prevention and testing campaigns in schools and businesses. 

Earlier during her visit, Ms Byanyima had a working meeting with representatives from the Monegasque government and Fight AIDS Monaco.

Isabelle Berro Amedei, Minister of External Relations and Cooperation said, “Health is one of Monaco’s priorities and that includes the fight against HIV in partner countries. We lead cooperation efforts to support countries where HIV prevalence is high like South Africa, Madagascar and Mozambique.”

Monaco signed a framework agreement with UNAIDS in 2007 and has provided support for UNAIDS work in Haiti (2010-2013), Burundi (2014-2016) and South Africa since 2017. The government of Monaco, Fight AIDS Monaco and UNAIDS vowed to continue their close collaboration on ending AIDS and reiterated their commitment to the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026 focusing on ending inequalities to end AIDS.  

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

FIGHT AIDS MONACO

Founded in 2004 by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, Fight AIDS Monaco is a non-profit organization that helps people living with HIV. It also raises awareness about HIV prevention in schools and supports access to treatment and services in countries like Madagascar, Burundi, Mauritius and Ukraine. 

New HIV infections among children declined by more than half (53%) globally from 2010 to 2020, but the momentum has slowed considerably. There are particularly large gaps in services to prevent vertical (mother-to-child) transmission of HIV in western and central Africa, home to more than half of pregnant women living with HIV who are not on treatment. 

Nigeria accounts for 24% of pregnant women living with HIV worldwide who are not on antiretroviral therapy and is the largest contributor among the seven countries that account for half of all new HIV infections among children globally. One in every seven babies born with HIV in the world is a Nigerian baby. Because of this, there is an urgent need to scale up sustainable programmes for the elimination of vertical transmission of HIV in the country, and the government has committed to end vertical transmission by the end of 2022.

The Nigerian Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, chaired a national consultation on vertical transmission of HIV in May 2021 and pledged the government’s full support and commitment to work with all partners in order to ensure that no baby is born with HIV, directing the National AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections Control and Hepatitis Programme (NASCP) to provide technical support to all Nigerian states to develop actionable operational plans to meet the objective. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Health has delivered 1.7 million of the 4 million HIV and syphilis test kits ordered as a step towards ensuring that all pregnant women are screened, regardless of where they live in the country.

“The procurement of the HIV test kits is a powerful demonstration of political leadership and country ownership by the Government of Nigeria for an AIDS-free generation. As a priority, the United Nations Joint Team on AIDS remains committed to fully support the government in its efforts to eliminate vertical transmission of HIV in the country,” said Erasmus Morah, the UNAIDS Country Director for Nigeria.

NASCP, supported by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), is providing technical support to all Nigerian states, but with a priority given to five states—Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Taraba. The Joint Team has provided financial and technical support, including support for data analysis for each state. Each state is driving its own planning process and choice of strategy and key activities.

According to the government, Anambra state has an HIV prevalence of 2.2%. In 2020, less than 30% of pregnant women were tested for HIV and less than a quarter of pregnant women living with HIV accessed antiretroviral therapy, even though more than 90% of pregnant women attended a health facility for antenatal care in Anambra. There was a 73% increase in the estimated number of new HIV infections among children in the state from 2015 to 2020. Given its HIV prevalence, and the increase in new HIV infections among children, Anambra was recently supported to develop an operational plan for the elimination of vertical transmission of HIV.

The state’s leadership, including the Secretary of the State Government, Solo Chukwulobelu, and Anambra’s Commissioner for Health, Vincent Okpala, met together with representatives of NASCP, NACA and the United Nations Joint Team. The resulting Framework for Anambra State Action to Eliminate Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV provides a summary of the current provision of services to prevent vertical transmission of HIV in the state and outlines strategies to reach every pregnant woman in the state, the state government’s commitments and key activities, along with timelines. The framework provides specific action by service providers from both the private and public sectors to reach every pregnant woman in the state with HIV testing services and provide antiretroviral therapy and viral load testing to every pregnant women who tests HIV-positive. The framework also commits to ensuring antiretroviral therapy prophylaxis at birth and early infant diagnosis of HIV for every infant, along with continuity of care for both mothers and their babies. The federal and state governments and existing donors will fund the initiative.

Akudo Ikpeazu, the National Coordinator of NASCP, said, “It’s important to work extensively with the First Lady of the State as a Champion for Eliminating Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV to ensure every pregnant woman is reached in Nigeria.”

The gaps in HIV responses and resulting HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths lie upon faultlines of inequality.

Data from 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa show a positive relationship between HIV prevalence and income disparity. After controlling for education, gender inequality and income per capita, a one-point increase in a country’s 20:20 ratio—which compares how much richer the top 20% of a given population is to the bottom 20% of that population—corresponds to a two-point increase in HIV prevalence.

HIV prevalence and income inequality, sub-Saharan African countries, 2019

South Africa is making strong progress in scaling up HIV testing and increasing viral suppression in patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), but is not yet reaching its targets for treatment coverage and HIV prevention, according to an updated Thembisa model released at the 9th South Africa AIDS Conference in June.

The results of the annual updated Thembisa model (version 4.2) was released by researchers at the Centre for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town. Work on the Tembisa HIV estimates is  funded by UNAIDS through a grant from the United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC), and used data from multiple sources including recent surveys by the Human Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

South Africa is committed to reaching the UNAIDS 90–90–90 Fast-Track targets by 2020. The aim of this strategy is to ensure that 90% of people living with HIV are tested and know their status, that 90% of people living with HIV are receiving treatment, and 90% of people on treatment have a suppressed viral load. The latest Thembisa estimates indicate that South Africa reached 90–68–88 by mid-2018. This means that total viral load suppression among all people living with HIV was 55%, which is 18 percentage points below the target of 73%.

The Thembisa model also estimates that men had a lower uptake of HIV testing and treatment compared to women. As a result, in 2018, 47% of HIV-positive men were virally suppressed compared to 58% of HIV-positive women. This was also reflected in annual AIDS-related deaths which halved from 2010 to 2018, but with men increasingly over-represented.

Women accounted for 62% of new HIV infections in adults from 2017 to 2018. The lead developer of the Thembisa model, Leigh Johnson, said two factors were hampering progress on reducing HIV incidence: low ART coverage and the need to improve linkage and retention in care, and evidence of reduced condom use. He noted that adolescent girls and young women (15–24 years) account for 31% of all sexually-acquired HIV and require special attention.

The Thembisa results highlighted concern about slow progress in reducing HIV incidence. The model estimates that in the last year there were more than 240 000 new HIV infections in South Africa, which was a reduction of less than 40% from 2010. The UNAIDS target is to reduce annual new infections by 75% between 2010 and 2020. To achieve this, South Africa would need to reduce new infections to fewer than 100 000 by mid-2020, which poses a significant challenge.

The Thembisa results show that  that KwaZulu-Natal, the province with the most severe HIV epidemic, succeeded in reducing its annual new HIV infections by 49% from 2010 to 2018. Thembisa also estimates that annual new infections among children declined 55% from 29 000 in 2010 to 13 000 in 2018.

More detailed results and model details are available on the Thembisa website: https://thembisa.org/downloads

South Africa has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerate the pace of its response to HIV in order to reach the 2020 Fast-Track targets and end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

During the opening plenary of the 9th South Africa AIDS conference in Durban, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Shannon Hader, reminded participants that 1in 5 people living with HIV globally lives in South Africa. The country has the largest treatment programme in the world with 4.5 million people on treatment by June 2018. However, around 3 million people living with HIV are yet to access treatment. Ms Hader also reminded the audience that the country is not on track to reach its prevention targets.

“Pace really matters. The world will only succeed in ending AIDS when South Africa succeeds,” she said. Ms. Hader noted that ending the AIDS epidemic was a strategic priority for South Africa and an essential element of the Sustainable Development Goals. “Success in HIV is success in health, and we won’t have health for all if we don’t address HIV.”

Ms Hader reiterated that UNAIDS and the UN system remain committed to support South Africa’s response to HIV and TB. “We are with you,” she said.

Delivering the opening address to the conference, South Africa’s Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize said the success of the AIDS response to date was a tribute to the work of researchers and the courage of activists who dedicated their lives to finding solutions. “This event reminds us to harness the huge potential of people living with HIV to guide the delivery of services,” he said.

When closing the conference, South Africa’s Deputy President, David Mabuza, thanked UNAIDS and the UN system for their continued support and noted that South Africa is determined to expand HIV treatment to at least 6.1 million people by 2020. He cited Thembisa modelling by the University of Cape Town and funded by UNAIDS that suggests 12.9% of the South African population is living with HIV. 

While South Africa’s HIV response is being hailed as a success, it is “clear that we are not doing well in preventing new infections,” said Mr Mabuza. “It is estimated that there are around 250 000 new infections annually, and our target is to get below 100 000 new infections by December 2020. This gap is big and it must be closed.” Mr Mabuza noted that stigma and discrimination remained a challenge to ending AIDS and he expressed determination to overcome them. “We must be compassionate and ensure that available services are provided with respect and dignity to all,“ he said.

At a pre-conference event, the UN Resident Coordinator Nardos Bekele-Thomas joined the Minister of Health, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, the Deputy Ministers of Justice and Social development, and several political, community and civil society leaders, to launch a new human rights and gender plan to address barriers to access HIV and TB services. The plan was handed over to Mr Mabuza, who is also Chair of the South Africa National AIDS Council during the closing session of the South African AIDS conference. Mr Mabuza welcomed the launch of the plan and said the Government was committed to ensuring every public servant provides care with compassion and at the highest possible level of quality. “This is not only a right thing to do, but a fundamental human right,” he said.

Ms Bekele-Thomas noted that South Africa has ratified several international human rights instruments and has a progressive Constitution with a bill of rights, but she said these alone were insufficient to promote and protect the rights of vulnerable and key populations. “Human rights must be respected, protected and fulfilled through the adoption of relevant strategies and implementation plans, by refraining from limiting the enjoyment of human rights, by preventing others from interfering in the enjoyment of human rights, and by promoting human rights awareness,” she said. She also commended the Global Fund for supporting the development of the plan.

The theme of the AIDS conference was “Unprecedented Innovations and Technologies” and it engaged community members, scholars and policy experts in detailed discussion of implementation science and game changing approaches, ranging from PrEP and U=U (Undetectable equals Un-transmittable) to new data on contraception and sub-national data on prevalence and progress on the 90-90-90 targets.

Botswana has reaffirmed its commitment to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 with the recent launch of two new five-year strategies.

The third National Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS and the Multi-sectoral Strategy for the Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases will until 2023 guide the government’s strategic response to improve health outcomes for the country’s population.

Botswana has made significant progress in its response to the HIV epidemic in recent years. Of the estimated 380 000 people living with HIV in 2017, 320 000 have access to treatment to keep them well.

Botswana was the first country in eastern and southern Africa to provide free and universal treatment to people living with HIV. It has adopted the Option B+ strategy which offers women living with HIV lifelong treatment and the “test and treat” strategy which provides immediate treatment to people who test positive for the virus.    

During a two-day visit to the country from 13 to 14 June, UNAIDS Executive Director a.i., Gunilla Carlsson, attended the presidential launch of the new health strategies. 

“As a country, we need to renew our focus and re-prioritize our agenda on the HIV response to attain the 2020 targets and the vision for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Furthermore, non-communicable diseases have become a new epidemic that threatens our health as a nation as well as our national development agenda,” said President Mokgweetsi Masisi during the launch.

During her visit, Ms Carlsson also named the First Lady of Botswana, Ms Neo Masisi, as Special Ambassador for the Empowerment and Engagement of Young People in Botswana. In this role, Ms Masisi will focus on advocating for young people’s needs, the promotion and protection of their rights, and their leadership roles of agents as change, with an emphasis on young women and girls.

“I’d like to thank UNAIDS for the confidence placed in me by conferring upon me this role. It will help me to leverage my role as First Lady to end the AIDS epidemic among young people and add value to the work I am already doing,” said Ms Masisi.

In a meeting between Ms Carlsson and members of civil society in Botswana, participants raised their concerns about complacency, especially among younger people, adherence to treatment and HIV prevention.

On the back of the landmark decision of the High Court of Botswana to decriminalize same-sex relations, members of the LGBT community expressed hope, but also warned that more work needed to be done to address stigma and discrimination, especially in communities and in health care settings.

“The main challenge that Botswana is facing in its AIDS response is complacency. If the country can overcome this challenge, then it will show the whole world that it can be done,” said Gunilla Carlsson, UNAIDS Executive Director, a.i.

During her visit, Ms Carlsson also visited Ramotswa, a village outside of Gaborone, to witness how communities are coming together to accelerate the AIDS response. She also visited Tebelopele clinic in Gaborone, which provides integrated HIV and health services to a wide range of people, including female sex workers, men who have sex with men and adolescent girls and young women.

UNAIDS is continuing its support to Pakistan in responding to the outbreak of HIV in Larkana, during which more than 800 people have been newly diagnosed with the virus. More than 80% of the new cases are among children aged under 15, with most among children aged under 5. By 17 June, 396 people had been referred to treatment.

At a press conference on June 14 the authorities presented the findings of a preliminary investigation into the outbreak. It concluded that poor infection control practices, including a lack of sterilization and the re-use of syringes and intravenous drips, are the most significant factors behind the rise in new infections.

“There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done to improve infection control and support the affected children and their families,” said UNAIDS regional director, Eamonn Murphy, during the press conference held in Karachi, Pakistan. “UNAIDS will continue to facilitate and coordinate within the United Nations system and with other partners to ensure that the required support is provided effectively and efficiently,” added Mr Murphy.

As well as improving infection control procedures, the preliminary investigation found that strengthening community education is critical to raise awareness about HIV prevention and to tackle stigma and discrimination. The conclusions of a rapid assessment on HIV-related knowledge presented at the press conference found that information about HIV is very limited among the affected communities. Many parents and caregivers learnt about HIV only on the day their children were diagnosed or because of media reports about the increase in cases. A lack of accurate information created panic and some families with children diagnosed with HIV have been shunned and isolated.

In response, UNAIDS in partnership with UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Health Organization and the JSI Research and Training Institute have been supporting national partners to develop a community response plan to promote health education and reduce stigma and discrimination. The Sindh AIDS Control Programme, together with UNAIDS and UNICEF, has started to train health workers on paediatric case management and health education sessions are being organized with the involvement of community led organizations and religious leaders. Training sessions for local media on responsible HIV reporting are also being carried out.

UNAIDS has been working closely with the federal and provincial governments to provide on-site technical support to help respond to the crisis and mitigate its impact. Sindh’s Ministry of Health has increased its efforts to prevent unlicensed and informal medical practices from operating and, as a result, 900 health clinics and unlicensed blood banks have been closed.

The preliminary investigation was led by the World Health Organization, in partnership with organizations including the Sindh AIDS Control Programme, Aga Khan University, the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, the Dow Medical University in Karachi, the Microbiology Society of Infectious Disease and UN agencies, including UNAIDS, UNICEF and UNFPA.  

With 20 000 new HIV infections in 2017, Pakistan has the second fastest growing AIDS epidemic in the Asia Pacific region, with the virus disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable and marginalized, especially key populations. UNAIDS continues to work with the government and partners in Pakistan to strengthen the response in the country.

The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, coordinated by the Global Network of People Living with HIV, is one of the world’s oldest and largest grassroots mobilization campaigns for HIV awareness in the world. In May, the UNAIDS country office in China invited members of community-based organizations to lead a commemorative event to mark the 36th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial at the United Nations headquarters in Beijing.       

Organized by the Man Wellness Center and Beijing Love Without Border Foundation under the theme of "Ignite Hope, Blessing for Love,” the event brought together community members, activists, young people, healthcare providers, private sector representatives and other people working in the response. They remembered those lost to AIDS-related illnesses and re-committed their efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.  

During the ceremony, the director of UNESCO’s Beijing office, Ms. Marielza Oliveira, welcomed the significant advances made in the response to AIDS, emphasizing the medical and scientific advances that could now be used to reduce the impact of the epidemic. She called on people to join together to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with the virus to ensure that everybody could share in the progress being made.

Participants at the event received the latest material about HIV treatment and prevention options.

Civil society activists in China are working hard to get the message across that as long as people living with HIV take treatment regularly and are virally suppressed, they are not infectious: Undetectable = Untransmittable.        

Young people were prominent at the event. Volunteers from the Core Group for AIDS Prevention and the Red Cross Society of China’s Beijing branch attended and committed themselves to creating a discrimination-free environment for people living with and affected by HIV.

As dusk fell, people lit candles in memory of those that have been lost to AIDS-related illnesses.

At the end of the ceremony, people came together to place their candles on a commemorative red ribbon.

The event once again demonstrated the central role played by communities in the response to the AIDS epidemic.

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are becoming increasingly interested in developing the local production of quality-assured medicines and other health technologies. This is due to its potential to assist LMICs in improving access to quality-assured medicines and other health technologies, achieving universal health coverage (UHC), and reaching the health-related targets and broader developmental objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The term "Local Production" can be defined in various ways. For the purposes of this statement, "local" refers to the geographical location, i.e. occurring in the country or region, and "production" — in regard to pharmaceuticals for example — refers to all activities along the pharmaceutical manufacturing value chain. Within the context of the public health agenda, promoting local production requires a holistic approach that considers policy coherence, regulatory systems strengthening, access to finance for sustainable production, a careful assessment of the business case, development of skilled human resources, access to technology for production and needs-based innovation, creation of investment incentives and other factors, to enable manufacturers to comply with international quality standards, be competitive and engage in sustainable manufacturing. 

The Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property, adopted at the 61st World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2008, cites local production and related transfer of technology as one of the elements to promote innovation, build capacity and improve access. More recently, at the 71st WHA in May 2018, Member States highlighted the importance of local production in the context of the global shortage of, and access to, medicines and vaccines. 

A number of international organizations have also expressed their desire to source quality-assured medical products closer to the point of use. The pull effect of significant market opportunities can be a major factor in driving progress, particularly when aligned with partnerships in supporting the development of the industry and health workforce. 

Strengthening local production is a cross-cutting endeavour. Sustainable local production requires effective multisectoral collaboration in order to promote enabling investment, legal and technical environments. In many LMICs, the capacity of both local manufacturers to produce and supply quality medical products and the national regulatory authority to ensure quality, efficacy and safety is insufficient. Any supply of medical products — both through local production and imports — should go hand in hand with the strengthening of regulatory capacities in order to achieve compliance with international GxP[1] and other quality standards. Close partnership between the international community and LMICs is essential to support countries and regions to build the capacities, institutions and industries that can sustain the progress made. 

With the globalization of the pharmaceutical industry and the variety of country contexts, there is no "one-size fits-­all" approach in promoting local production of quality-assured medicines and other health technologies. However, in recognition of the important role local production can play in improving access to quality-assured medical products and achieving UHC, the undersigned organizations aim to work in a collaborative, strategic and holistic manner in partnership with governments and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen local production. We are committed to contribute based on our respective organizations' expertise and mandate.

Launched in Geneva on 24 May 2019

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO

Mr Li Yong, Director-General, UNIDO

Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD

Ms Gunilla Carlsson, Executive Director, a.i., UNAIDS

Ms Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF

Mr Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund

[1] Good manufacturing practices, good clinical practices, etc. ^

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

During a visit to South Africa, UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, has warned that the global AIDS response is at an inflection point, at which gains to date could easily be reversed unless urgent efforts are made to reach targets for 2020 and achieve ambitious goals for the decade beyond.

In a meeting with South Africa’s Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, Mr Sidibé congratulated the country on its progress made to date and encouraged the government to accelerate action to reach ambitious targets that will put the HIV response on a sustainable path to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Mr Sidibé said it was time to fully leverage the power of communities to close the remaining gaps to the UNAIDS 90–90–90 treatment targets. 

In a meeting with the First Lady of South Africa, Tshepo Motsepe, Mr Sidibé encouraged her to use her voice and outreach capacity to empower people who lacked visibility and access to services, particularly emphasizing the importance of adolescent girls to have access top the human papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. 

Ms Motsepe indicated her willingness to engage on national and international issues for the sake of social development. “Health is not simply the absence of disease,” she said. “Some call me the First Lady, some call me the President’s spouse, but whatever you call me I am a social worker for South Africa.”

Mr Sidibé also met with former South Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe and urged him to keep people alert to the serious risks of losing momentum in the AIDS response and especially the need to engage more men in HIV testing and sustained treatment. 

Mr Motlanthe, who is a member of the Champions for an AIDS-free Generation in Africa, expressed his appreciation for the efforts of Mr Sidibé over the course of his career, including as UNAIDS Executive Director. He noted that Mr Sidibé has repeatedly identified and advocated for crucial steps to advance the AIDS response.

“Your timing has always been spot-on,” he said.  

While in Johannesburg, Mr Sidibé addressed the directors of UNAIDS country offices across eastern and southern Africa. He reminded them of the primary purpose of UNAIDS—to serve the needs of people living with HIV and those at risk of infection. As a health organization, he stressed that UNAIDS plays a unique role in advocating for the rights of vulnerable people, engaging strongly with civil society and insisting that nobody should face discrimination for how they live or who they love. 

“UNAIDS is not an organization driven by logistics or materials,” he said. “It is an organization that puts people at the centre.”

“The AIDS response, especially in eastern and southern Africa, offers lessons and approaches to ensure sustainability through political leadership, resource mobilization and community engagement,” he continued.

“With people behind you, you can really make the world better.”