World Aids Day 2019

I welcome the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day on “Communities make the difference”. I want to commend the remarkable role of communities in the HIV and AIDS prevention and response.

Communities are delivering incredibly important services and support to contribute to the prevention and response to HIV. Communities are playing an indispensible role in making HIV prevention knowledge available to their residents and families. They are acting to ensure that HIV/AIDS response remains on the political agenda. Communities can also play an important role to push for legislation revisions to end discrimination against persons living with HIV and AIDS. Providing access to treatment, ensuring the availability of confidential HIV testing and prevention services, community organizations are often the sole means of support in some of the most hostile environments.

According to UNAIDS data, the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment in mid-2019 is at the record high of 24.5 million, and new HIV infections have declined by 40% since the peak in 1997.

Still, significant challenges remain. We have a long way to go to reach the 2020 targets of 30 million people living with HIV on treatment and less than 500,000 annual new HIV infections.

Women, girls, LGBTI and other groups in vulnerable situation continue to be left behind, while stigma and discrimination persist worldwide.

With 2020 around the corner, we are about to enter the ‘Decade of Delivery’ for the Sustainable Development Goals, and we need everyone to help ensure we deliver these goals by 2030, and create the world we want, leaving no one behind.

Despite the unmet need of ensuring at least 26 billion USD for the AIDS response by 2020, funding declined by about 1 billion USD in 2018.

On this World AIDS Day, I call for immediate action to honour our promises. Time is running out, but if we act now, we can still get on track to achieve the commitment of ending AIDS by 2030. Let us all work together to make it a reality.