Delegation from Ethiopia To Participate In International HIV/Aids Conference

From June 16-19, 2007, a delegation of Ethiopian health officials, members of the PEPFAR Ethiopia team, and representatives from partner organizations (both national and international) who are assisting with the implementation of the massive HIV-AIDS prevention, care and treatment program will represent Ethiopia at the 2007 HIV Implementers’ Meeting of the President’s Emergency Initiative for HIV/AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Kigali, Rwanda.  This annual global conference gathers experts, clinicians, policy makers and practitioners involved in the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

More than 1500 participants are expected to attend this year’s meeting, with the vast majority traveling from developing countries.  The meeting will bring together a broad cross-section of AIDS implementers, including non-governmental organizations receiving funding from various sources.  It will be an opportunity to take stock of past achievements and consider concrete solutions for moving the response to AIDS forward towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. 

The meeting is co-sponsored by the Government of Rwanda; President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS; the World Bank; the United Nations Children’s Fund; and the World Health Organization. In addition, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) is serving as the official Advisory Group, helping to ensure representation of people living with HIV/AIDS as expert implementers.

The goals of the meeting are to:

- Widely share lessons learned during the implementation of multisectoral HIV/AIDS programs, with a particular focus on scale-up of prevention, treatment and care programs, building local capacity, quality, and coordination among partners;

- Catalyze an open dialogue about future directions of HIV/AIDS programs with a strong emphasis on implementation; and

- Directly impact HIV/AIDS program implementation in the coming year through the diffusion of lessons learned and best practices.

Many important implementation best practices are being developed, and this meeting is an opportunity to disseminate them as broadly as possible.

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For more information on PEPFAR and the 2007 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting, please visit http://www.pepfar.gov/