30 Aug Africa REACH Shares Call to Action at AU Ministerial Meeting: Advancing the Fight to End AIDS in Children
The Africa REACH Call to Action on Ending AIDS in Children in Africa, is a collaboration between African led and African based organisations, aimed at reigniting the conversation on ending AIDS in African Union member states. The coalition of partners have identified African government leaders at all levels, from Heads of State to Ministers of Health and Finance, as well as technical teams working on HIV programming and funding in countries, as the primary audience for this document. The coalition of partner includes the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, the All-Africa Council of Churches, the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development, Paediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa, and the African HIV Control Working Group, who will be using every opportunity in their respective calendars as well as social media platforms to disseminate this document.
Africa REACH recently attended the African Union 5th Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Health, Nutrition, Population and Drug Control, chaired by the United Republic of Tanzania, during this Ministerial level meeting, 34 African Union member states were represented, either by their ministers of health or their designated representative. Africa REACH met and spoke with the representatives from ministries of health, sharing the Call to Action with its objectives, its African designed messaging and language and getting a sense of their inputs into the document. The delegations received the document and committed to discussing it with their colleagues further in their capitols.
Africa REACH and the partners are committed to continue disseminating the Call to Action and consistently following up with the member states on the discussions happening in country on ending AIDS in Children. Specifically in the four thematic areas shared in the document, namely Improving the working environment for community health workers, improving access to combination prevention information and CSE, Access to peadiatric friendly treatment and lastly sustained domestic funding for HIV programs.