Consultation of UNESCO Africa HIV/AIDS focal points Dakar 16-17 September 2004

Welcome Remarks by
Ambassador Hans-Heinrich Wrede,
Chairman of the Executive Board of UNESCO

Mr. Parsuramen, Director of BREDA,
Dear UNESCO Africa HIV/AIDS focal points,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here by invitation and by inclination. It is for me a great honour and real pleasure to be with you at this first Consultation of UNESCO-Africa HIV/AIDS focal points. The Organisation's role is more essential than ever in the fight against HIV/AIDS! Your agenda will help you implement activities that will lead to concrete action.

The Dakar Framework for Action clearly states, and I quote "To achieve EFA goals will necessitate putting HIV/AIDS as the highest priority in the most affected countries, with strong, sustained political commitment; mainstreaming HIV/AIDS perspectives in all aspects of policy; redesigning teacher training and curricula; and significantly enhancing resources to these efforts." End of quote.

One of the most important goals Education could and should achieve in this century is to help reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. (As you well know, one of our Millennium Development Goals is to halt and begin reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015). The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS UNAIDS latest report of 2003 reveals: nowhere is the epidemic's more apparent than in the continent which has just over 10% of the world's population, but is home to close to two-thirds of all people living with HIV- some 25 million. Especially, African women are at greater risk.

As part of a collective consultation process initiated by UNESCO-BREDA in collaboration with the International Institute for Educational Planning, you helped elaborate a medium term strategy on HIV/AIDS Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In line with UNESCO's global strategy, the document focuses on the five core tasks: Advocacy at all levels ; Customising the message ; Changing risk behaviour ; Caring for the infected and affected ; finally, Coping with the institutional impact of HIV/AIDS.

To further underline the role of Education, the Twenty-third meeting of the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations, held earlier this year in Livingstone, Zambia, recognized that the only way to get ahead of the epidemic is for the countries and Cosponsors to launch a joint programme on prevention education to complement the new "3 X 5" initiative for treatment and to link treatment and prevention. The vast, joint global initiative so-called "3 X 5 initiative" was launched by WHO and UNAIDS in 2003 to increase access to antiretroviral treatment to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2005.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A number of important themes were addressed at the last session of the UNESCO's Executive Board, which included, of course, our key concern 'Priority Africa'! I like to repeat this old African proverb: "When the rhythm of the drums changes, the dancers must fall in step".
As you are aware, in 2002 UNESCO commissioned an external evaluation of its response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The evaluation concluded our Organisation has the potential to make a real difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The response has been late and is still not satisfactory at all in monetary terms but as it can work effectively, it should be strengthened. I am pleased to inform you that the Executive Board will be closely examining this evaluation report in October 2004. It is also comforting to know that you have placed on the agenda of your meeting discussions over the conclusions of the report.
Key areas were defined for a stronger impact that is currently of interest to you:

• Strong partnerships, in particular with civil society organisations.
• Development of links with UN agencies, forming patterns of collaboration and functional division of labour with them.
• Close relationships to the Ministries of Education, often with the help of UNESCO National Commissions as well.
• Leadership and commitment from UNESCO representatives in the field offices.
• Personnel resources in the field offices, supplemented with high level, external expertise.
• Developing a programmatic response at country and regional levels.

The Organisation should oversee the implementation of the following recommendations:

• Recruit and maintain human resources with HIV/AIDS competence to implement activities
• Increase monetary allocations to make HIV/AIDS a real priority
• Develop personnel resources throughout the organisation to facilitate cross-sectoral approaches.
• Establish HIV/AIDS as a cross-cutting theme in the organisation

Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once again I salute your initiative to discuss together your work plans and coordinate your activities in harmony with Global initiatives: e.g. EFA, the objectives of NEPAD, the Decade of Education in Africa and the Millennium Development Goals.

I wish you full success in your deliberations, and I look forward to receiving the conclusions of your consultation. I invite you to continue to dedicate yourselves in this fight against the pandemic in Africa. Unless we do this, our EFA efforts and all the related development gains will be strongly jeopardized.

Thank you for your attention!