U.S. Embassy Meets with Stakeholders in the Fight against HIV/AIDS Annual Meeting Presents Ethiopia’s Role in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

April 13, 2005
No. 15/05

Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) – The U.S. Embassy hosted a meeting on April 13, of stakeholders from across Ethiopia involved in the implementation of President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  Several hundred participants gathered at the Addis Sheraton to hear Ambassador Aurelia E. Brazeal, other Embassy officers, and a range of Emergency Plan program partners, including representatives of the Government of Ethiopia, discuss the Plan’s progress to date, as well as its future plans.  In Ethiopia, an interagency U.S. Government team including representatives from the Departments of State and Defense, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is implementing the President’s Emergency Plan.  This team works closely with a wide range of partners who execute programs and activities funded by the Emergency Plan, in support of the Ethiopian Government’s strategy to flight HIV/AIDS.

Speaking at the Stakeholders Meeting, Ambassador Brazeal commented on the range of participants in Ethiopia’s implementation of the Emergency Plan, saying, “I am heartened by the diversity in our ranks, as there is strength, knowledge, and experience in diversity.  Among us are government officials, leaders of faith-based organizations, representatives of United Nations and other international organizations, and many others.”  She reaffirmed the driving force behind the Emergency Plan’s varied programs:  “Though we are from different organizations and backgrounds, we have one common thread:  our fierce commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS.”

The vision of the Emergency Plan, laid out by President Bush in his Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy, is to turn the tide of the global pandemic.  Today, this coordinated U.S. Government effort – at $15 billion globally over five years, the largest international health effort in history by a government dedicated to a single disease – is combating HIV/AIDS in more than a hundred nations around the world, working to relieve the suffering of millions infected and affected by the disease.  The goals of this unprecedented effort include a special focus on 15 nations – including Ethiopia – that account for more than 50 percent of the world’s infections.  In the focus countries, the Emergency Plan will support treatment for two million people living with HIV/AIDS, aims to prevent seven million new infections, and will support care for ten million people.