Mr. President,

    I bring fraternal greetings and best wishes from the Government and the people of Uganda to you and all members of the United Nations for the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS. I also bring to you, Mr. President, and through you to this UN Special Session, personal best wishes of the President of Uganda,. Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

    May I also take this opportunity to thank our illustrious UN Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, for his personal commitment to combat HIV/AIDS. Indeed, this august meeting is a big milestone in the global effort to fight the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.

    Uganda was the "epicentre" of the epidemic in the mid 1980s. Today, our country is frequently cited as a "success story". Whereas we have made a considerable dent in the epidemic, we regard this merely as  modest "progress". We have not yet achieved "success". There is, therefore, no room for complacency. We must continue to reach out to the communities, urban and rural, with advocacy and social mobilisation to empower them to take charge of the manifestation of HIV/AIDS.

Mr. President,

    HIV prevalence in Uganda has declined from an average of 18.5% in 1993 to 8.3°/ in 1999, and 6.2% in 2000.

    Today, there are more than 1.4 million Ugandans infected in a population of only 22 million. Close to 1.0 million people have died, leaving behind more than 1.7 million orphaned children below the age of 15 years. Over 30,000 babies are born annually with HIV from their infected mothers.

    By the very nature, the disease deprives us of the most productive segment of the population. There is loss of GDP of 0.9 annually. Our health systems are over-stretched. The epidemic poses a grave health burden and a severe socio-economic problem. It is, therefore, a national security threat.

    Our people have grappled with the disease for nearly 20 years. We, therefore, largely know what works. Our country responded courageously at different levels: in the political and policy arena, the technical and scientific field and among civil society and grass-root communities. I salute them all.

    Above all, I salute the Ugandan Network and Associations of People Living with HIV/AIDS, who have come out openly. Their advocacy and campaigns have made a tremendous contribution to our progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Mr. President,

A number of factors were clearly unique in our response to this pandemic:

Uganda recognised at an early stage that HIV/AIDS is a multi-dimensional problem which requires a multi-sectoral approach for the political, cultural, economic and health/clinical perspectives.

Like in all other countries, at the beginning there was fear and panic, then denial, stigma and discrimination. These are now dramatically reduced. Little scientific information was available. In addition, there was civil strife and political instability when the epidemic first struck in 1982. When the NRM government assumed leadership in 1986, we chose a political strategy as one of the options to fight AIDS.

President Museveni personally led community mobilisation campaigns, speaking about AIDS at every opportunity. The President also adopted the attitude of openness about the disease. He urged all our leaders to put AIDS on their political agenda, and technical experts to provide correct information to the public. The NRM Administration actively encouraged public debate about AIDS-related activities.

The involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS was critical in the mobilisation and awareness campaign.

Mr. President,
 
    Our country is poised to intensify, expand and accelerate activities that have proved effective.

    We have integrated AIDS issues in the national priority programme, under the Poverty Eradication Action Plan. This implies that debt relief HIPC funds will, inter alia, be dedicated to AIDS activities.

    Due to our dire need for HIV/AIDS strategic interventions, we have had to borrow World Bank funds to support our programme for scaling up. The estimated cost to scale up our response is well above US$50 million per year. The Bank loan of US$10 million per year is clearly inadequate. We welcome grants and other support measures from all sources to intensify our response. We need to reinforce our health system to deal with related problems such as Malaria and T.B.

    We are participating in global initiatives, such as the District Response Initiative, which aims to empower and serve communities effectively by making integrated action plans which must focus on critical areas such as gender inequalities, rampant poverty and adolescent problems.

    We are expanding and integrating antiretroviral therapy into the regular health system, starting with prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. Our Health Ministry has already started preparing for proper provision of Antiretrovirals. The greatest obstacle is, clearly, the cost of effective drugs. We urge the international community to continue searching for strategies to access these drugs. We appreciate the efforts of Pharmaceutical companies so far, but more must be done.

    Uganda has pledged US$2 million as a contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS and Health. It is my honest opinion that richer countries should contribute according to what is proportionate to their resources. We need to ensure effective and efficient mechanism to access these funds through the appropriate UN agency - UNAIDS which has the technical competence.

    We shall continue to co-operate with the international community in the search for effective treatments and vaccines.

    Our policies are being reviewed regularly to ensure that critical issues are appropriately addressed. These include the proper care and protection of the rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS, human rights and civil liberties with parallel strategies for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children and widows. Law reform measures to address these rights are being undertaken.

    Uganda pioneered the multi-sectoral approach to the control of AIDS in the late 1980s. In order to co-ordinate the activities ofthe multiple partners, the Uganda AIDS Commission was established by statute in 1992. We intend to strengthen this co-ordination for enhanced and sustained advocacy.

    We cannot contain the epidemic in one country alone. AIDS respects no territorial borders. We shall, therefore, continue to actively promote regional collaboration.

    We subscribe to all efforts for the restoration and maintenance of regional and global peace and security in order to create conditions conducive to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

    Uganda supports the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa. Within the national partnership, we promote the business community on combating AIDS. To this end, we recently launched a National Business Council.

Mr. President,

    The declining trends must be accelerated towards zero-prevalence. It is, therefore, a challenging task to further enhance and sustain the scaling up of national efforts at all levels:

Behaviour management is a daunting task. Innovative strategies must be found to accomplish this task. In order for interventions to succeed, there is need to take into account the cultural and religious values of various societies. At the same time it is important to involve and empower the communities to take charge of their programmes.

The orphan crisis is one of the greatest challenges. We must plan comprehensively for effective strategies to address this critical issue which has a broad complex scope ranging from children to adolescents.

Decentralisation of services, with the required support, to the grass-root communities, and to the under-served areas and populations, is critical.
The Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy in Uganda has provided an opportunity for critical messages on HIV/AIDS issues to reach the primary-age children. Similar focus is targeted to post-primary institutions.

It is clear that poverty drives the epidemic, and AIDS exacerbates poverty. Prioritisation of AIDS issues in poverty eradication programmes is, therefore, fundamental to addressing the epidemic.

National governments and global partners must provide the necessary resources for these increased demands.

Mr. President,

    It is well recognised that Sub-Saharan Africa has borne the brunt of the pandemic. Over 70% of the adults and 80% of children living with HIV/AIDS in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, while 55% of HIV positive-adults are women. The key factors affecting the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa are poverty, illiteracy, political instability and armed conflict.

    African countries will, therefore, need access to long-term international financing arrangements in order to have viable sustained economic growth, generate adequate resources and build capacities for poverty eradication and combating HIV/AIDS including:

viable education systems including UPE especially for the girl-child;

strong and sustainable health infrastructure including health delivery systems;

creation of opportunities for employment and other conditions for empowerment of women.

agricultural modernisation to increase rural productivity and incomes;

total debt cancellation for poor and highly-indebted countries.

Mr. President,

In conclusion, I wish to congratulate Secretary-General Kofi Annan on taking the lead in global efforts against AIDS.

    The establishment of a Global Fund is timely, essential and most welcome. We are committed to supporting the Fund. It is anticipated that wealthier countries will make contributions commensurate with their national resources so that the fund, with minimum bureaucracy is accessed for holistic applications in prevention, provision of drugs, treatment, care, and research.
 
    Equitable access to effective treatments is an urgent necessity. Future strategies must include accelerated vaccine development. Vaccines are the ultimate weapons against HIV.

Thank you.