His Excellency the President of the
Republic of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni (left) greeting UNAIDS Executive
Director Dr Peter Piot (center) and Dr
Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of
the Global Fund (right).
Photo credit: UNAIDS/M.Mugisha What is an HIV implementer? Depending on whom you ask at the 2008 Implementers’ Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, which starts today, June 3, you may get varying responses. But one common thread is likely to run throughout – the drive to share lessons learned and best practices on how HIV services are delivered to people affected by the AIDS epidemic.
Over the next five-days, some 1,700 participants – from governments, NGOs, international organizations, including UNAIDS and other UN partners, the private sector and groups of people living with HIV – will exchange ideas and give examples of efforts to overcome obstacles in implementation of HIV treatment, prevention, care and support.
A co-sponsor of the meeting, UNAIDS, together with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund, UNICEF, the World Bank, WHO, and the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), will share examples of its work, and that of its cosponsors and other partners, in supporting countries in HIV programme implementation.
UNAIDS’ senior colleagues and thematic experts will participate in several events, from plenaries and sessions to satellites, focused on: addressing HIV prevention priorities and scaling up local prevention initiatives; HIV coordination and harmonization among implementation partners; communication for social change, particularly on norms about AIDS; and the role of civil society in strengthening the HIV response.
UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot
addressing participants during the opening
ceremony of the 2008 Implementers'
meeting. 03 June Kampala, Uganda.
Photo credit: UNAIDS/M.MugishaUNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot will give an address at the opening ceremony together with His Excellency the President of the Republic of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Ambassador Mark Dybul, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator/PEPFAR, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, and Dr. Kevin Moody, CEO of GNP+.
This is the second HIV Implementers’ Meeting, with the first taking place in 2007 in Kigali, Rwanda.
