PARLIAMENTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY DELIVERING HIV PREVENTION TOGETHER
24TH – 26TH JANUARY 2010

COMMUNIQUE
Preamble

• The follow-up meeting on Prevention Movement ("50 by 15") for SADC Parliamentarians (MPs) in collaboration with Civil Society (CSOs) was held at

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  Southern Sun Hotel, Hyde Park, Johannesburg, South Africa on the 24th - 26th January 2010.

• The workshop was officially opened by the SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary General Dr Esau Chiviya and Dr. Mbulawa Mugabe of UNAIDS, who both stressed the importance of strong and sustainable partnership between Parliamentarians and Civil Society in the fight against the epidemic. They also expressed the need for countries to adhere to regional agreements such as the Maseru and Abuja Declaration (Declarations??) and Plan of Action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), of year 2000 and the UN General Assembly Special Session Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (2001).

• The overarching objective of the January 2010 "50 by 15" meeting was to reaffirm conceptual understanding of the fundamental basis for supporting the Prevention Movement in order for Parliamentarians and Civil Society to provide the critical stewardship and high quality leadership on HIV prevention in the SADC region as espoused in various regional and international commitments on the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

• The January 2010 "50 by 15" follow-up meeting built on the initial collaboration that took place from July 15th – 17th 2009, in Pretoria.   

• The July 2009 and subsequently January 2010 "50 by 15"meetings of  the SADC MPs and Civil Society committed to the target of reducing the number of new HIV infections in the SADC region by at least 50% by 2015 , combined with the virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission.  Participants offered their knowledge and skills to the effort, and agreed to combine their respective strengths in advancing Southern Africa's 50 by 15 Prevention Movement

Concluding the business of the January 2010 meeting the SADC MPs, and Civil Society, acknowledged synergy of interest, resources and capacities between themselves and accordingly articulated the following:

 

Whereas we, Members of Parliaments from the SADC region and Civil Society representatives from the SADC region constituted the SADC Parliamentarians and Civil Society Delivering HIV Prevention Together workshop, held on 24th - 26th January 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa under the auspices of the Fifty by Fifteen Prevention Movement.

Noting that the current workshop was aimed at further interrogating the roles and opportunities for cooperation between Members of Parliament and Civil society organizations in strengthening prevention programmes in a manner that can be adapted to relevant epidemiological, economic, social and cultural contexts in which they are implemented, in order to achieve the 50% reduction of new infections by the year 2015, and to utilize proven interventions for the reduction of HIV infection.

Acknowledging that, the SADC region continues to face unprecedented levels of HIV incidence rates, with approximately 1.1million new infections reported in 2007 alone, representing about 51% of all new HIV infections in Africa, and about 37% of the global total, thus making the SADC region the worst affected in the world.

Cognizant of the fact that as the result of the current record number of new infections in the region, the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially Goal number 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases) will be greatly undermineddespite Member States having put in place measures at national levels to prevent new HIV infections and mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These include the adoption of programmes to promote more responsible sexual activity, VCT, youth programmes, PMTCT and other prevention measures.

Cognizant of the successes made in treatment agenda, but recognising that the gains made in treatment will not roll back the HIV epidemic unless prevention ("turn off the tap") is given highest priority in Government budgets and mobilization efforts by civil society in constituencies.

Aware that the region has benefited from substantial financial contributions from National Governments, multilateral ODAs, philanthropic sector and bilateral ODAs, totaling USD13.765 billion; and that the Global Fund has committed to channel over 57% of its total resources to sub-Saharan Africa, and 61% of those resources have been channeled to HIV; and yet SADC still needs USD6.872 billion for HIV prevention and treatment in 2010.

Concerned that, despite the huge financial investments in HIV programs in the region, national Governments continue to under- allocate resources to critical areas in the prevention of HIV such as Human Resource and Health Systems strengthening, and that donor financing alone will not bring the much needed sustainability in the prevention of HIV infections.

Recognizing that the success of the 50 by 15 Prevention Movement will depend mainly on strengthening mutual relationships through accessible means of information sharing between MPs and Civil Society Organizations, functional monitoring and evaluation systems, accessible public policy regimes and most importantly the involvement of the grassroots in the movement.

Urging that innovative and accelerated actions on the ground and in the corridors of power be adopted if the ambitious, but vitally important, target is to be achieved.

Noting that with time moving relentlessly on, progress in our partnership has been slow but steady, and celebrating that the energy on both sides for the initiative to work is stronger than ever.

At this, the second formal meeting between Parliamentarians and civil society, we intend to develop operational the plans for 50 by 15 – Prevention Movement To this end, we resolve to move forward in a practical and timely way; specifically, by June 30th 2010, to have:
 at country level:

• identified key Members of Parliament (preferably members of the committee with lead responsibility for HIV/AIDS), and one or more key civil society agencies (selected through an inclusive meeting of the wider civil society sector in that country) to act as the key contacts and catalysts to ensure that the Parliamentarians- civil society element of 50 by 15 is launched in each country in SADC;
• identified a "task team" for each country, comprising partnership advisers from UNAIDS, the National AIDS Council (or equivalent), academics, civil society agencies and other UN agencies if relevant, to brief and support the in-country work;
• organized a meeting of representatives of Parliamentarians and civil society at country level to receive a briefing on domestic HIV prevention policies and challenges, and to start the process of identifying a joint plan of action;
• organized a joint media release from Parliamentarians and civil society at country level;
• disseminated and used as appropriate the action toolkit developed by SAfAIDS to build a pool of capacitated and driven actors, within both policy and civil society sectors

And, regionally;

• planned and implemented a system to enable civil society agencies and Parliamentarians to "join" the initiative and register specific commitments for action regionally and at country level;
• organized a baseline and a Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism
• contacted other leadership actors, such as within the faith-based sector, such as faith, local government, traditional leaders and private sector, with a view to their engagement with the 50 by 15 Prevention Movement.
• launched the 50 by 15 Prevention Movement  using mechanisms that are palatable and unique to individual countries.

SADC Members of Parliament Regional and national-level civil society representatives

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Parliaments and Civil Society Delivering HIV Prevention Together 24th – 26th January 2010 - Communiqué

50X50 HIV Prevention Report