Côte d'Ivoire
Ivorian President heads national AIDS campaign

afrol News, 19 February - Côte d'Ivoire is mobilising high level commitment against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The campaign against HIV/AIDS has been made a national priority under the leadership of President Laurent Gbagbo himself after it was know Côte d'Ivoire has become one of West Africa's worst hit countries. 

At a recent ministerial conference in Abidjan to mobilise top government officials, the HIV/AIDS ministry presented a preliminary version of a US$ 27 million national plan for 2002-04. Participants included 14 government ministers and their chiefs of cabinet, heads of a number of UN agencies and other development partners. 

The UN development agency, UNDP, which observed the conference, reported that the new national plan includes HIV/AIDS prevention activities focusing on youth, women, mobile populations and sex workers; treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and promotion of condom use; and steps to reduce traditional practices contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS. It also supports measures to reduce the social and economic impact of the epidemic and protection and care for people living with HIV/AIDS. 

President Gbagbo set up the HIV/AIDS ministry - the only one of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa - in January 2001 to coordinate the government's multi-sectoral response. He said the ministerial conference is "a crucial step to prepare for the victory of life over the HIV/AIDS epidemic." 

Participants also decided to organise an extraordinary council of ministers to sign a declaration of commitment to the national HIV/AIDS plan, implement a decree to create HIV/AIDS focal units within each ministry, and put in place an inter-ministerial committee for the campaign against the disease. 

- The urgency reflects Côte d'Ivoire's position as one of the countries worst hit by the HIV/AIDS scourge in West Africa, according to a report by UNDP. "One in 10 adults and teenagers age 16 to 49 are infected with the AIDS virus - one million people in all - and 600,000 children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The epidemic has become the leading cause of death among adults, and its impact threatens the country's economic, social and human development." 

To decentralise the campaign and encourage commitment by local communities and leaders in every department, HIV/AIDS Minister Assana Sangaré will carry out a "Tour of Côte d'Ivoire against HIV/AIDS" this year. She plans to visit two departments each month for four days, accompanied by another minister and a member of parliament. 

The conference was carried out within the framework of an initiative to strengthen the HIV/AIDS ministry. UNDP has provided US$ 170,000 for this project, with parallel funding from the European Union, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Population Fund and the UN refugees agency (UNHCR).

Sources: UNDP and afrol archives

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