UNAIDS has always enjoyed a strong relationship with the government and people of Ireland. Ireland’s political and funding support has made the country a strong and reliable partner of UNAIDS. Such support allows us to lead the global effort to end AIDS by ensuring that communities of people living with HIV and those affected by HIV receive the services they need, especially those communities that are most left behind, like the communities in Karamoja that you mentioned.

We have learned a lot about how to fight pandemics. 40 years ago the first cases of AIDS were reported. 25 years ago the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS was created, the Programme I lead. 20 years ago the Global Fund was born. 18 years ago, PEPFAR was launched. Today we are going to need every asset of the collaboration between the United Nations, PEPFAR, the Global Fund, governments, philanthropy and communities to fight the inequalities that are driving HIV and COVID-19. That means bold political leadership, global solidarity as there was 25 years ago, strategic partnerships that engage the people most affected by the disease, a commitment to human rights, and a serious global plan.

Speech by Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg