20^TH World AIDS Day (1988-2008)

Today, we join millions of people around the world in observing World AIDS Day. This year marks the 20^th anniversary of this important annual global event. We have come a long way in the fight against this scourge since the very first World AIDS Day was observed in 1988.

Here in Ethiopia, we have been breaking many barriers in building a well-integrated and participatory response to the pandemic. As documented in the latest 2008 UNAIDS report issued last week, HIV prevalence rates have declined slightly in urban areas and stabilised in rural regions of our country. Over the past year, we have been able to reach and, in some cases, exceed our own national targets in scaling up the delivery of life-saving HIVAIDS prevention treatment, care and support services in collaboration with a host of international partners. The results have been encouraging. Over 300 additional new service delivery sites providing AIDS services have been established throughout the country, bringing the total numbers to 1,336 sites providing HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing services, 384 antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery sites and 317 facilities providing prevention of mother-to-child treatment (PMTCT). The number of Ethiopians living with HIV now receiving ART has increased from a mere 1 percent three years ago to over 54.5 percent this year. Today, over 120,000 people are receiving treatment. We have also seen a dramatic rise in the number of people using counselling and testing services --over 4.5 million people over the last year and over 900, 000 in the last month alone. This is an encouraging indication that our concerted efforts to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and to combat stigma and discrimination are bearing fruit. Close to 300, 000 HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children have also been reached with care and support services through a variety of programs

Of course, much more needs to be done. Recognising the relatively slower progress made in expanding the reach of vital PMTCT services, we have set ambitious targets for the coming year and are mobilising to address the systemic bottlenecks encountered in delivering this life-saving intervention to infected pregnant mothers. Likewise, much must be done to step up our prevention efforts through more effective and broader community mobilization. By the end of this year, we expect to have trained and deployed over 6,000 additional health extension workers (HEW) throughout the country. This will bring the total of HEW posted to 30,000 which will enable us to meet our national target of two health workers per village. We can expect that this significant boost to our health workforce will translate into significant expansion of effective prevention services.

But we also acknowledge the challenges ahead. Reaching the goal of Universal Access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS services, sustaining this access over the long-term and bolstering prevention programs to address new infection rates -- which remain unacceptably high -- will all require substantial additional resources and the continued concerted efforts of all stakeholders.

We have seen how good governance and leadership at all levels have been critical for the significant results achieved to date. It is thus, fitting that the chosen theme for this year’s World AIDS Day moves beyond last year’s focus on leadership to encompass both ‘empowerment’ and ‘delivery’ – two key ingredients to the creation of sustained participatory leadership at all levels. Delivering on our promise will require the empowerment of our citizenry, and particularly our young women and men, who remain among the most vulnerable to the disease.

Thus, as we celebrate the gains made through effective leadership on this 20^th anniversary, we should also be reminded that a significant proportion of our young citizens have not known a world free of AIDS. We must, therefore, focus special attention on the empowerment of our youth. We must enable them to become themselves the leaders of the positive behavior change that is needed to break the back of this pandemic. Young women and mothers, in particular, need to be empowered to take charge of their own health, including through the provision of accurate information on how they can protect themselves and their children from infection.

Indeed, Ethiopia’s young men and women hold the promise of our future, constituting as they do the vast reservoir of our nation’s productive force and creative energy. We must, therefore, tap on this enormous potential by promoting a new generation of leaders to envision and work towards the realization of a world free of the burden of this terrible scourge. This will also be key to achieving our broader development goals and sustaining the spirit of rising aspirations embodied in the new millennium’s Ethiopian Renaissance.