Remarks at National Commemoration of World AIDS Day

Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

Minister for the Presidency, Responsible for the HIV and AIDS response within Cabinet, Honourable Milly Babalanda

Cabinet Ministers

Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and Heads of Missions

Members of Parliament

Government Representatives

The District Leadership

Colleagues from the United Nations

Religious Leaders

People Living with HIV

Members of Civil Society Working on HIV and AIDS

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the United Nations in Uganda, I am delighted to be with you today to commemorate World AIDS Day. This day has been celebrated every year since 1st December 1988 – meaning, children that were born the year of the first commemoration are now 34 years old. 

Your Excellency, your leadership in the HIV response is acknowledged all over the World.  You were the first leader in the World to recognize that the threat of HIV needed political leadership. Therefore, 30 years ago you created the first AIDS Commission in the world.  Uganda also supported a vibrant civil society movement led by people living with HIV.  That movement has expanded beyond HIV to also be engaged in emerging epidemics such as COVID-19 and Ebola.   Your Excellency, we honour and applaud you for that leadership.

Ladies and Gentlemen, World AIDS Day is an opportunity for every community – including us here today - to unite in the fight against HIV, to show solidarity with people living with HIV, to remember those that have died from AIDS, and to join hands with the millions affected by the virus.  Thank you for being here to honor this day.

Your Excellency,

We are 8 years to our goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat and to ending gender inequality by 2030. We congratulate Uganda for the significant strides made – Uganda is among 10 countries in Africa that were very close to achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 HIV treatment and testing targets of 2020. All data has been moving in the right direction! We appreciate your steadfast leadership in launching the Presidential Fast-Track Initiative (PFTI) for Ending AIDS by 2030 that helped to refocus the national response against HIV.

The global theme for World AIDS Day this year is "Equalize”, reminding us that even as we celebrate there are many who are still left behind, including children, adolescent girls and young women, people living with disabilities, and other key populations. We must equalize and ensure that these vulnerable groups have access to prevention, treatment and care services of good quality and attain their right to health.  

In his message for World AIDS Day UN Secretary-General, António Guterres notes that, “The inequalities that perpetuate the AIDS pandemic can and must be overcome. We can end AIDS. If we Equalize.”

Our data tells a story that despite the immense leadership and progress, the best science, the best tools, and a well-financed response, we are still falling short. Uganda is still losing 7000 people each year to AIDS-related deaths, most of whom are men, and rates of new HIV infections remain concerningly high among key groups – including adolescent girls and young woman.   

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Across the world, and particularly in Africa, there are key and priority groups that continue to record high numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS related deaths. The Eastern & Southern Africa Region alone, we report three thousand two hundred (3200) new infections each week amongst adolescent girls and young women between 15-24 years.  Importantly, there is a significant difference between infections amongst young girls and boys of the same age group - young girls in Uganda are four times more likely to be infected than young boys.   

As duty bearers, it is important we provide age-appropriate sexuality education in schools including for those out of schools. We must address HIV/AIDS related information gaps and enhance our protection measures for young people.  Young people nowadays face immense pressures from peers and social media to engage in early sexual activity which exposes them to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The interplay between HIV, gender inequalities, and SGBV particularly among adolescent girls and young women is recognized within the Global AIDS Strategy and High-level political declaration on HIV which was adopted by United Nations Member States in June 2021.

Girls and young women remain disproportionately affected by HIV and poverty.  Evidence and practice at field level have demonstrated that addressing financial stress among young women living with HIV, and keeping girls in school are relief strategies in alleviating the direct and indirect effect of HIV on women and girls and their immediate households. For example, under the Karamoja Economic Empowerment Project (KEEP) 2016 -2020 implemented by UN Women with support from Irish Aid, which aimed at economically empowering young women and adolescent girls living with HIV, to improve their quality of life through social asset building, 4,805 women entrepreneurs received Enterprise Development Assistance of USD $140,000 Start-Up Capital. The project evaluation of a sample of 256 beneficiaries established that they were better able to cope with the HIV illness including accessing treatment 58.2% (149/256) and were open about their status and received peer to peer support, expert client counselling and positive living messaging with100% (256/256). The Enterprise Development Assistance group approach enabled them to share their personal stories and build self-worth and hope hence dispelling stigma and positively influencing community’s perception and relationship.

The past two years that saw closure of schools due to COVID-19 were particularly challenging. We know that the longer young people stay in school and complete school, the less chances of registering teenage pregnancies, early marriages, HIV infections, sexual related abuses, and poverty.

In response to some of these challenges, the UN launched the Education Plus Initiative. The PLUS agenda ensures that in addition to returning and retaining girls in school there is:

• Universal sexuality education,
• Freedom from sexual and gender-based violence,
• Attainment of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and
• school-to-work transitions for young women’s economic security and autonomy.

Our world is being beset by frequent global and national shocks such as COVID-19, climate change/drought, Ukraine-Russia war, refuge influx, and the evolving Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Uganda – but the HIV epidemic is still with us and must not be forgotten amidst the many new challenges.

I call on all of us to re-double our efforts to ensure that the gains made in the HIV response are not lost due to the new challenges. This includes addressing the inequalities that prevent people from receiving HIV prevention, testing and treatment services. There should be:  

• A renewed push for HIV prevention by scaling up implementation of prevention projects so that innovations such as PrEP and long acting injectables become much more accessible, especially to vulnerable groups
• Sustain and expand progress on treatment to reach those who are not being treated. These are mostly men, children and young people who may not know their HIV status.
• Support and effectively resource community-led responses. to make them friendlier and more operational.
• Substantially increase domestic financing to sustain the gains made in the HIV response.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to finish by reiterating that we can end AIDS – if we end the inequalities that perpetuate it. We must Equalize.

Thank you for your attention.

ENDS