2007 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting Opening Remarks

Ambassador Mark Dybul, United States Global AIDS Coordinator
Kigali, Rwanda
June 16, 2007

Welcome to the 2007 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting.

Let me begin by offering deep thanks to the Government and people of the Republic of Rwanda. His Excellency President Paul Kagame has provided inspiring leadership in this nation's fight against HIV/AIDS. Rwanda is a global leader in the global fight: a model of commitment to a multisectoral approach, drawing upon the strengths of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including civil society, faith-based organizations, and the private sector. You are a living example of the power of partnerships and of this meeting’s theme – scaling up through partnerships. It is wonderful to be here to highlight your leadership and success.

President and Mrs. Kagame, Honorable Minister of Health, Honorable Minister of State, Dr. Innocent, with whom I am honored to co-chair this meeting, and other members of the government, thank you for your warm hospitality, and even more for your commitment to building an AIDS-free generation here in Africa.

Thanks to the many distinguished implementers here today from all walks of life who are turning the tide against global HIV/AIDS. I would like to pay special tribute to the members of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. You are the heart and soul of the world's effort to confront this disease. Often at great personal cost, you are working so that others will not suffer. Thank you for your commitment -- and for your courage.

We are joined by Ministers of Health from countries that are making great progress in confronting their own epidemics -- thank you for being here. And we are privileged that this year, for the first time, key international partners are co-sponsoring the meeting: the Global Fund, UNAIDS, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. I am privileged to share the podium with Dr. Michael Kazatchkine of the Global Fund and Michel Sidibe from UNAIDS, speaking on behalf of Dr. Peter Piot. To all the co-sponsors, we are grateful for your partnership in this meeting, and for your partnership in the field.

This meeting is an opportunity to share lessons learned, to disseminate best practices so we can improve our programs in real time. It is about saving as many lives as possible as quickly as possible. There is no time to lose.

As those of you here know all too well and all too personally, we still have a long way to go in this fight. Thousands of our friends, family members and fellow citizens die of this preventable and treatable disease every day.

But even as we acknowledge the stark realities of the epidemic, we are inspired by the progress that you have made over the last few years.

Individuals, communities and nations are taking ownership of their lives and are beginning to turn the tide against the pandemic. Young men and women are choosing behaviors that protect them against infection or reduce their risk of acquiring it. When accurate information is provided, personal responsibility is taking hold. We have an important new prevention tool in medical male circumcision, and our knowledge base about behavior change continues to expand. You have dramatically expanded programs to care for millions of orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV. And, perhaps most impressively, as of December, more than two million people in the developing world were receiving antiretroviral treatment, a twenty-fold increase in just four years.

When we selected the dates for this meeting, we did not know that it would follow two of the most important weeks in the history of the global fight against HIV/AIDS, and more broadly, in the history of global health. On May 30, President Bush proposed a doubling of the initial $15 billion commitment of the historic President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was already the largest international health initiative in history dedicated to a specific disease, asking the U.S. Congress to provide an additional $30 billion in funding for five more years. If Congress meets the President's request, the total U.S. commitment to global HIV/AIDS over a 10-year period will be an unprecedented level of more than $48 billion.

Last week, the news got even better. Challenged by President Bush’s commitment, the G-8 leaders committed to $60 billion dollars. And just as importantly, there was a commitment to support country-owned, national programs to meet specific, numerical goals: treatment for 5 million, prevention of 24 million new infections, care for 24 million people living with HIV and orphans and vulnerable children.

These two landmark events are based squarely on your success – in what you have all accomplished in just a few short years. President Kagame, the success of Rwanda, and of other countries, in moving rapidly to save lives led directly to these announcements.

In a broader sense, these commitments are based in faith and hope:

Hope for and faith in the dedicated and talented people of the many countries in which we are so privileged to work together. People who commit their lives every day to the service of their countrymen and women -- all giving of themselves for others.

Hope for and faith in a better tomorrow for the people living every day with the ravages of this pandemic – those living with HIV infection and those who care for and bury loved ones, those orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Fundamentally, the commitments made by President Bush and the G8 leaders are part of a broader vision for development based on hope for and faith in all of you – in people. We are rejecting the old and flawed “donor – recipient” approach and replacing it with “partnership.”

Partnership is rooted in hope for and faith in people. Partnership means honest relationships between equals based in mutual respect, understanding and trust, with obligations and responsibilities for each partner.

While there has been much success, much remains to be done -- and now we have breathtaking new commitments to help get it done. So let us here today rededicate ourselves to serving our global sisters and brothers in need. Let us rededicate ourselves to the proposition beautifully stated by President Bush: that where you live should not determine if you live or die from HIV/AIDS. Let us rededicate ourselves to transforming the world through the promise of partnerships. There is no higher calling or nobler goal.

Working together, everything is possible.

Thank you for being here in Kigali, and for your partnership in one of the most important undertakings of our time.