Excellency Premier of Kwazulu Natal – MR. SIHLE ZIKALALA
Senior Government officials present
Members of the International Community
Executive Directors of organizations of the UN System
SAA board members
Esteemed members of the ICASA 2021 Steering committee
Members of the local, national and regional civil society organizations
Colleagues, distinguish delegates,
Finally, let me acknowledge the people who made this conference happen -ICASA Director (Mr. Luc Bodea) and his team and the LOC Chair (Dr. Thembi Xulu) and her team.
The Society for AIDS in Africa, organizers of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of South Africa to host ICASA 2021 in Durban, South Africa, from 6th – 11th December 2021. The signing of the MoU took place on the 30th of August 2021, at the Durban International Conference Centre (Durban ICC).
It is my honour, pleasure, and privilege to address all the members of the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) in African and the rest of the World, and particularly our potential participants to the ICASA 2021 Conference that will be in Durban, South Africa.
Many of you will remember that in 2019 we had a successful conference in Kigali, Rwanda attended by nearly 9000 delegates. It was an exciting conference with many strategies shared, and the efforts to eradicate HIV was progressive. The UNAIDS 90-90-90 HIV and AIDS target by 2030 projection, and there was an assurance that 95-95-95 is achievable. Suddenly the 2020 target was annihilated by the COVID 19 pandemic, which affected our health systems, particularly in Africa, resulting in many deaths.Forty years since the first AIDS cases were reported and just weeks before the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS, the United Nations Secretary-General has released a new report with recommendations and targets to get the world on track to end AIDS
NEW YORK, 30 April 2021—The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has warned that despite intensive action and progress made against HIV in some places and population groups, HIV epidemics continue to expand in others and issued a set of 10 key recommendations.* If followed by all countries, this will end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. In a new report, Addressing inequalities and getting back on track to end AIDS by 2030, the United Nations Secretary-General urges the world to address the inequalities that are slowing progress.
The ICASA Secretariat is hereby calling on its cherished media partners, from across the African continent and Diaspora to join us in a virtual press conference to share the outcomes of the 1st ISC meeting as well as provide information on the upcoming ICASA 2021 activities.
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