It is almost five years ago to the day that the Security Council adopted Resolution 1308 (2000). To be frank, some of us initially wondered whether it belonged on the agenda of the Security Council; but this landmark resolution provided the jolt that we desperately needed. In retrospect, at that time AIDS was not sufficiently on the radar of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. It deserved to be. It most certainly is now.

Conflict and post-conflict environments are high-risk areas for the spread of HIV. Since the adoption of resolution 1308, we have developed a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of peacekeepers contracting or transmitting the virus while on mission. This strategy has five key elements:

•  First, the creation of specific capacity within missions to address AIDS;

•  Second, ensuring the availability of condoms and observing universal medical precautions;

•  Third, the development of voluntary counselling and testing capacities in missions;

•  Fourth: establishing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; and,

•  Fifth, setting up outreach projects to local communities and mainstreaming AIDS into mission mandates.

I welcome the opportunity to brief you today on the concrete progress that has been achieved in all five of these areas. Before doing so, however, I must acknowledge with sincere gratitude the critical technical and advisory support that Dr. Piot and his team at UNAIDS continue to provide DPKO, both at headquarters and in the field. Our programmes would not be where they are today without their assistance. In fact, DPKO has been, and remains, dependent on many partners throughout the UN system and with host communities to achieve progress.

Perhaps the most essential partners, however, are the 105 countries which currently contribute uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping operations around the world. Member State support is a determining factor in the success of our programmes. This is true of donor countries as well and, in this regard, I wish to express my gratitude to Denmark and the United Kingdom for their contributions to our HIV/AIDS Trust Fund.

The assistance we have received could not have been more timely, given that the numbers of UN peacekeepers deployed world-wide continues to surge. Today, there are over 66,000 uniformed personnel, and more than 13,000 international and national civilians, serving in 17 peacekeeping and related field operations. This is a significant number of people, who, at any given time, need to be advised and trained on how to play their part in the fight against AIDS. It is a serious challenge, but I think we have made major progress.

AIDS advisers

When I reported to the Council two years ago on Resolution 1308, I made an undertaking to deploy AIDS advisers to all major peacekeeping operations. At that time there were just four advisers; we now have ten, supported by UN Volunteers and national professionals. And smaller missions have designated focal points. Taken together, these advisers and focal points create a valuable network across all peacekeeping operations.

DPKO and UNAIDS undertook joint missions to Haiti and Sudan to establish AIDS programmes in advance of major troop and civilian personnel deployments. This set a new precedent which we hope will become the norm.

Since 2003, UNAIDS has seconded an AIDS policy adviser to DPKO headquarters to provide policy guidance and coordinate mission initiatives. At the end of this year this will become a DPKO post and I would like to thank Member States for supporting the position.

Training

Awareness training is central to DPKO's strategy. We work closely with troop-contributing countries and UNAIDS to establish at least a basic level of awareness among peacekeepers. AIDS is routinely included in ‘train the trainer' courses and military observer programmes and other sessions organised and sponsored by DPKO to enhance national peacekeeping capabilities. For example, AIDS formed part of the recent senior management seminars, held in Ghana, India and Russia, for high ranking police officers from numerous member states.

It is also central to mission specific pre-deployment training, like that provided to Guatemalan and Peruvian peacekeepers being deployed to Haiti; to Rwandan peacekeepers being deployed to Sudan; and to re-hatting African Union peacekeepers in Burundi. AIDS is also part of induction training for all civilian personnel.

We recently revised our AIDS training module to ensure that the important issues of gender, codes of conduct and sexual exploitation and abuse are fully reflected.

Our strategy has also been to reinforce support for the issue within DPKO. AIDS is on the agenda of the Force Commanders conference scheduled for next week and is part of senior leadership induction. In addition, we have created tailored modules for specific occupational groups, such as public information officers and stress counsellors.

Within missions, AIDS advisers coordinate with training cells to provide induction and on-going awareness training to troops, military observers, civilian police and civilian staff, keeping step with rotations.

Missions also ensure the availability of reproductive health items, such as male and female condoms. Post-exposure prevention kits are held at out medical facilities for cases of occupational exposure to HIV. Screened blood supplies have long been part of our mission medical support.

Assessment of impact

But what impact do we actually make? How do we measure the effectiveness of our training programmes? To find some answers, DPKO piloted an ‘HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitude and practice survey' in Liberia during May and June this year, in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNAIDS. More than 660 uniformed peacekeepers were randomly selected and individually interviewed. The sample included: military observers; civilian police; and troops of all ranks – from privates to colonels – from 8 different contingents. The results are currently being analysed, but I would like to share a few preliminary findings.

Awareness was generally high. For instance, over 94% correctly stated, unprompted, two of the key ways that HIV is transmitted: through unprotected sex and exposure to infected blood. The vast majority – over 87% – of those who had been in mission for at least a month, had received AIDS awareness training since their arrival.

However, a disappointing finding was that only a small number that had received training from within their battalions or detachments. And less than 2% had been briefed on AIDS by their commanding officers while in the mission area. The support of the command structure is crucial to any efforts to mainstream AIDS training and I urge troop contributing countries to ensure that AIDS awareness is considered a command responsibility.

To create greater capacity among peacekeepers, AIDS advisers run peer education programmes, drawing on the UNAIDS peer education kit and awareness cards. For example, the mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea, which was the first mission to be established after Resolution 1308, has trained approximately 1,100 peer educators in a series of two-week intensive programmes.

UNAIDS and DPKO are examining ways to create a network to maintain the capacity of such peer educators when they return home. I hope that we can do this in partnership with Member States so that this expertise is reinforced rather than lost.

Voluntary counselling and testing facilities in missions

We are very aware, though, that knowledge in itself does not protect people from HIV; it is what people do with that knowledge and how they change their behaviour that makes the difference.

Strengthening voluntary counselling and testing facilities across our peacekeeping missions is a priority. This allows peacekeepers to make an informed decision to find out their HIV status and is critical to influence behaviour and prevent transmission.

Of the peacekeepers surveyed, over 92% had been tested for HIV as part of their preparation for deployment; but only half stated that they had received any counselling with the test. The mission in Liberia has two voluntary counselling and testing centres, which have been visited by over 420 uniformed and civilian peacekeepers since they opened in April this year. The mission plans to launch a roaming facility to ensure access for all personnel in the sectors. There are similar facilities in other peacekeeping operations.

Peacekeepers as agents of change

Our efforts focus not only on how to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, but also on how to capitalise on the positive potential of peacekeepers as ‘agents of change'. When we train peacekeepers in gender awareness, human rights and child protection, we hope tom both influence their own behaviour, and also their ability to recognise and respond to sexual violence and exploitation.

Peacekeepers can also share their knowledge about HIV with the local population. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, sensitisation projects by peacekeepers have ranged from theatre performances and football matches to high-profile events attended by local dignitaries. Across missions, peacekeepers link up with local groups to mark World AIDS Day.

Outreach to local populations

Peacekeeping missions also develop AIDS outreach projects that specifically target local communities. For instance, the mission in Liberia has held five-day programmes for local Christian and Islamic leaders, to encourage faith based AIDS prevention initiatives in the country, and training sessions for the local media and women's groups. In Haiti, a number of quick impact projects have supported AIDS initiatives and the public information office has worked with a local NGO to fight stigma and discrimination and promote awareness among local journalists.

All AIDS advisers are members of their respective host country's UN Theme Groups on HIV/AIDS. These groups assist in the development and implementation of national strategies to respond to the epidemic. Such partnerships are central to our overall response. For example, in Côte d'Ivoire the mission has teamed up with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to conduct a series of programmes over one year with peacekeepers and with local communities, in particular targeting women and girls. In Sierra Leone we have worked closely with the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa. Engaging with local women's groups not only helps to reach the most vulnerable, but also strengthens training for peacekeepers, as the testimonies of local women provide a different perspective on AIDS and the broader issue of sexual exploitation.

UN Volunteers (UNVs) in our missions have often played a pivotal role in outreach projects, such as raising funds for school fees for AIDS orphans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or helping former commercial sex workers in Ethiopia and Eritrea find alternative sources of income. In Sierra Leone, there is a UNV funded ‘reintegration and transition to peace' programme. At the request of communities, the project has provided training for youth leaders in AIDS awareness in 12 districts of the country.

Mainstreaming AIDS into mission mandates

DPKO is also collaborating with other UN agencies to mainstream AIDS into mandated mission functions. For example, AIDS is included in a 14 UN entity initiative to create integrated standards and guidelines for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration in peacekeeping settings. The AIDS adviser in Sudan is designing a strategy to train AIDS peer educators as part of the demobilisation programme in the country.

In Haiti the mission is working with UNAIDS, UNFPA, local NGOs and national bodies to build the long-term capacity of the police force to address AIDS in the ranks. During our mission in Timor-Leste, a special peer education programme for the police force was part of a six-week schedule of ‘living testimonies' by an HIV-positive trainer.

The way forward

Building on the survey in Liberia, we intend to roll out similar monitoring and evaluation projects in other missions. And immediately following this open meeting, DPKO and UNAIDS are jointly hosting a workshop for AIDS advisers and focal points from 16 missions. This will provide an opportunity for frank discussions and the sharing of lessons learnt so that we can enhance our programmes.

I could provide more detail on different initiatives, but I hope that this brief overview gives you a sense of the concrete measures we have been taking to tackle HIV/AIDS in peacekeeping operations. Over the past five years we have learnt many lessons – from our partners, from our successes and also from our mistakes. But we have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Is our basic strategy the right one? What additional investments need to be made to sustain and strengthen our efforts? My feeling is that we are on the right track. We have overcome a lot of resistance and as the value of the programmes has become apparent, there is a demand for more. But a number of areas still need to be tackled. Testing, for example, remains a controversial and divisive issue. Also, as I mentioned before, we need to ensure that AIDS awareness is considered a command responsibility, moving beyond rhetoric to engagement at the highest levels. We need continued support for our HIV/AIDS Trust Fund, and the capacity of missions to respond to growing demands will need to be reviewed, especially if we want to move beyond raising awareness to changing risk behaviours.

We are constantly being challenged to find new ideas and approaches, and we are ever mindful that any success in tackling HIV/AIDS relies on working in partnership. In 2000, we barely crossed paths with agencies like UNAIDS, UNFPA or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; today we design and implement programmes together. As I emphasized earlier, ultimately addressing HIV/AIDS in peacekeeping must be a joint effort involving Member States, troop contributing countries, UN and other agencies, and host communities. And I look forward to strengthening further all these partnerships.

Thank you.