Feature story

President of Mali committed to AIDS response

05 October 2010

From left to right: Michael Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; H.E. Amadou Toumani Touré, President of Mali and Global Fund Executive Director Prof. Michel Kazatchkine with the Born HIV Free signature book. Credit: The Global Fund/John Rae

The President of Mali, His Excellency Amadou Toumani Touré, is on a three-day visit to the United States to reinforce his country’s commitment to the AIDS response. The President is participating in the Global Fund’s Replenishment conference, taking place on 4 and 5 October and is meeting with a number of high ranking officials from the United Nations and the US administration. 

Public and private donors from over 40 countries will reaffirm their commitment to the work of the Global Fund by announcing funding pledges for 2011 to 2013 at the Global Fund’s Third Voluntary Replenishment and pledging conference which is being chaired by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The President of Mali will be the highest country representative at the conference and will bring a regional perspective to the proceedings. 

The Global Fund provides a quarter of all international financing for AIDS globally, two-thirds for tuberculosis and three quarters for malaria. Ahead of the Conference, the Global Fund announced ahead that it will need 17 billion to sustain, and 20 billion to scale up the response to the three diseases. 

As well as participating in the conference the President of Mali met with the UN Secretary General to discuss building stronger relationships between the United Nations and Mali. He also met with Ambassador Eric Goosby, Global AIDS Coordinator with the U.S. Department of State. During their meeting Ambassador Goosby congratulated the President on Mali’s successes in responding to its epidemic. 

Mali has shown strong leadership in the response to the epidemic and investments are starting to show results––Mali has seen a drop of more than 25% in new infections and has reached 65% coverage of antiretroviral therapy. 

On the second day of his visit the President of Mali will meet Anthony Lake the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund.