Statement Delivered by

H. E. Dr. Ernest B. Koroma,

President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

and Chairman National HIV/AIDS Council

On the Occasion of the Fourth National HIV/AIDS Council Meeting,

4^th June 2010

Distinguished Council Members

Director and Staff of the National HIV/AIDS

On behalf of my Government and people of Sierra Leone and in particular, Sierra Leoneans Living with HIV/AIDS, I am very pleased to welcome you to the fourth meeting of the National HIV/AIDS Council under my presidency.  I should take this opportunity on behalf of our Council to acknowledge the support provided by our development partners in scaling-up our national response to HIV/AIDS and in particular the support provided to the National HIV and AIDS Secretariat in their effort at coordinating the diverse responses.  This support and the commitment demonstrated by our partners have positively impacted on our response.  Today, we can safely say that our epidemic is on the verge of stabilizing as is evidenced on the various studies conducted by the National AIDS Secretariat.  This shows that together as a team with a strong and committed leadership provided by the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat we can overcome the challenge of slowing down the spread of the virus.

Looking at the agenda before us indicates that we have important issues to deliberate on and our effort at beginning to reverse the trend of HIV infection in our country rests on the outcome of this meeting.

Council needs to be reminded that our country over the years has entered into important commitments with the United Nations and African Union on preventing HIV and mitigating its impact on our population.  Countries are expected from time to time to submit progress report on those commitments.  It all began in 2000 at the UN General Assembly Millennium Summit in which we adopted an ambitious set of eight goals, popularly known as the Millennium Development Goal to be achieved by the Year 2015.  One of these goals was “combating HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other Diseases”.

In June 2001, at a Special Session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, we also made a special commitment to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and to mitigate its impact on our population.

We again came together under the umbrella of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique in June 2006 to declare 2010 as the year of Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services for the African Continent.

The objectives of all these meetings, resolutions and commitments were meant to remind the political leadership of the commitments entered into and to work with development partners to operationalize global, continental, regional and national efforts to intensify our HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes.

Council is meeting to take stock of the progress our country has made towards honouring those commitments.  The National AIDS Secretariat, whom we mandated to chart the road map and to follow-up on those commitments will be presenting progress reports on the UNGASS and the Universal Access Commitments.  From the briefing notes presented by the management of the Secretariat to my Office, our performance as a country is very satisfactory.  On behalf of Council, I commend the management of the Secretariat for being selfless and proactive in galvanizing and coordinating the diverse efforts of partners in meeting those commitments.  This effort has contributed not only to scaling-up our response but also in mobilizing resources in a shrinking development assistance market.  The Secretariat in addition will present to this body details of resources mobilized under the Global Fund Round 9 submission on HIV and AIDS and Health System Strengthening.  From the presentations that the Secretariat will be making, we will have to discuss and come up with recommendations that will strengthen our Secretariat to coordinate the response more effectively.  We have already laid the foundation on which to build and now is Council’s support to the Secretariat required more than ever.

On behalf of my Government and people of Sierra Leone, Our thanks go to our Development Partners – bi and multilateral partners for their continued commitment and support to the National AIDS Secretariat in leading the fight against HIV and AIDS.

I must also commend the leadership and staff of the Secretariat for being result oriented and commitment to duty.

On this note, I now declare the National HIV/AIDS Council meeting open and wish us all fruitful deliberations.

I thank you for your attention.