The Africa wide Civil Society Organisation (CSO) universal access review meeting on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support took place from 14-15 April in Windhoek Namibia, in the run up to the 5th Conference of African Ministers of Health (CAMH5) to be held from 17-21 April. The African Union Commission’s Department of Social Affairs was represented at the meeting by Drs Marie Goretti Harakeye Ndayisaba and Benjamin Djoudalbaye.
The CSO meeting was also attended and supported by UNAIDS The CSO meeting aimed to review, from a civil society perspective, the progress of universal access since the Abuja Call for Accelerated Action towards Universal Access to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria services by 2010 that was made by African Heads of State and Government in 2006. (This deadline has now been extended to 2015 to coincide with that for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals).
The importance of a review at a continental level is accentuated by dire statistics on access to HIV prevention, care and treatment on the continent. A delegate from South Africa e.g. reported that sometimes people have to travel 65 kilometers to get ARVs from the nearest clinic.
The meeting also recommended steps required to achieve universal access. It considered the outcomes of the regional consultations. Reports came from Eastern and Southern Africa, Indian Ocean, West and Central Africa, Middle East and North African Region (MENA), the UN and the AU. It also “shared best practices and learnt from countries which are making progress to achieve MDGs” the African Union Commission’s Head of HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and other infectious diseases Dr Marie Goretti said. The meeting outcomes will be passed on to an experts meeting starting on 17th April, then onto a ministerial meeting to start on the 20th of April, which, in turn, is expected to come up with an African Common position on the continental HIV response to be presented to the United Nations High Level meeting to be held in New York in June this year.
The point of the African Common position is that it will chart the direction to be taken in the next few years in terms of universal access. This common position, once accepted will guide the actions and interventions of all the inter agency partners who deal with specific sectors of the population such as children, youth, women, girls, workers etc.
The African Union’s greatest contribution in the struggle for universal access is in coming up with African common position, but the organization also assists in resource mobilization, advocacy, coordination and policy development.
The campaign for universal access aims to ensure that access to HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support is not only limited to the rich, urban and educated in Africa, as is the trend at present.
