COMMISSION ON HIV/AIDS AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA TO MEET IN BOTSWANA, 26 – 27 JULY; FOCUS: PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD TRANSMISSION; ACCESS TO TREATMENT AND CARE

COMMISSION ON HIV/AIDS AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA to meet in Botswana, 26 – 27 July;

Focus: PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD TRANSMISSION; ACCESS TO TREATMENT AND CARE

(Reissued as received.)

ADDIS ABABA, 19 July (ECA) -- The Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA) will convene its CHGA Interactive session in Gaborone, Botswana, July 26-27.  CHGA Interactive Botswana is the second in a series of five regional meetings the Commission will organize in Africa.  The principle target of CHGA Interactive is civil society and agencies at the sharp end of service delivery.

The purpose of the subregional interactive process -- which is quite unique for a United Nations Commission -- is to solicit and delineate the reflections of these key groups on CHGA's final report.  This meeting tackle two pressing HIV/AIDS issues:  (i) access of treatment and care for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA); and (ii) prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT).

The focus of the meeting is on the challenge of scale-up of treatment and care for PLWHA, a central issue facing African governments.  While increasing resources coupled with the decreasing costs of treatment and the emergence of simpler treatment regimes, provides an opportunity to scale up national AIDS treatment and care responses in resource-limited settings, African governments still face many challenges in scaling up AIDS treatment including:  (i) limited capacity of health systems; (ii) issues related to equitable access to treatment and care; (iii) fostering stakeholder buy-in.

The CHGA Commissioners Ms. Joy Phumaphi, Ms. Milly Katana, Dr. Alan Whiteside and Ms. Awa Coll-Seck, will be in attendance.  Other participants including senior government officials and United Nations partner agencies have also confirmed their attendance.  The core group of participants will derive from civil society organizations representatives working on HIV/AIDS related areas.

The first CHGA Interactive session took place in Maputo, Mozambique, in March 2004.

The Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa is a United Nations system-wide initiative, involving partnerships with a number of United Nations agencies, as well as leading institutions, in Africa and internationally, on aspects of research, policy engagement and implementation.  Under the chairmanship of the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), K.Y. Amoako, CHGA represents the first occasion on which the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS will lead an effort to examine the epidemic in all its aspects and likely future implications.

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