2015 finds us at a true turning point in development—how it is debated and how it is practiced. In September, UN member states are expected to adopt one of the most ambitious agendas in history—the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—which will guide social, economic and environmental action over the next 15 years. The world will begin reaping the benefits of a momentous shift towards society-wide, people-centred approaches to health, climate and social equity.

My friends, we must continue to collectively reflect on how we can become more fit for purpose for the post-2015 transformative agenda—both at UNAIDS and in the United Nations system as a whole. We discussed this at the Chief Executives Board and agreed that a United Nations system that can deliver on the post-2015 agenda must effectively meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. These challenges are diverse and complex and demand the effective coordination of government, civil society, the private sector, academia and others. UNAIDS is uniquely placed to bring together all actors.

This bold new set of targets, 90-90-90, will do more than reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. It will be a transformative agenda for reaching people who are left behind. We have heard from Minister Tien that—with a lot of effort—they have been able to put 38 percent of people in Vietnam who need it on HIV treatment. By 2020, our cascading targets are to have at least 90 percent of all Vietnamese living with HIV know their diagnosis; 90 percent of those people to be receiving antiretroviral treatment; and 90 percent of those on HIV treatment to have an undetectable viral load.

My friends, let us not leave Melbourne thinking that it will be easy to reach the summit. Complacency will cause us to stumble. Will future generations say that we squandered the opportunity of a lifetime? I know the path will be steep and the obstacles many. Let us do this in memory of our colleagues who died en route to Melbourne and the millions who have died of AIDS-related illnesses and of the tens of millions of people living with HIV. If every person here tonight, and everyone working to end the epidemic, acts with the same sense of urgency, the same hope and the same commitment to fight for those left behind, we will scale this mountain. But only if we go arm in arm will we reach the top and the end.

Today we can tell the world that soon there will be more African children born with AIDS. There are several countries, including Gabon and Rwanda, where we already have generations born without AIDS. And I believe that this is a small indication of this victory, which of course has resulted in change on several levels. Today we can say that we have not only reduced the price of the drug. We produce one of the best drugs in the world, in South Africa, and no longer for $15,000 per year, but $80 per year per person.

I want to thank the 181 United Nations Member States who submitted global AIDS response progress reports to UNAIDS this year.7 The evidence of progress is bold and inspiring. For example, scaled up efforts to prevent new HIV infections among children are showing remarkable results, with new HIV infections among children continuing to decline. However, we need to ramp up efforts to reach the goals set out in UNAIDS and partners’ Global plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive by fully integrating HIV into maternal and child health services.