Mr President, in seconding this motion, let me reiterate that the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes remains grateful to Sweden and Norway for their continued financial support to the Programme in general and to specific projects and activities in particular.

Mr President, while the Programme has experienced some serious challenges in the implementation of its two key project activities as itemised by the mover of this motion, that is the SADC HIV Financing Project and the SRHR, HIV and AIDS Governance Project, it is not all bleak.  We have, Mr President, recorded some success and made progress in some countries.  In terms of some of the success stories relating to the implementation of various project activities, I wish to update this house as outlined below.

In Malawi, some of the key activities undertaken include capacity building workshops for Members of Parliament serving on the Committees responsible for health, budget and gender as well as some civil society organisations working in the area of SRHR, HIV and AIDS.  Further, the Parliament of Malawi has since enacted the Marriage and Divorce Relations Act, which outlawed all forms of child marriage in Malawi.  Notably, the passing of this Act illustrated how ruling and opposition party Members of Parliament could collaborate if they were galvanised around an issue of common interest as the two sides of the House stood together and passed this Act and the subsequent relevant constitutional amendments nemine contradicente.

In the wake of these developments, the Members of Parliament had been undertaking outreach activities within the communities to popularise the provisions of the Act and sensitise the members of the public about it.

In Zimbabwe, two capacity building training activities were held under the two Projects: one targeting Members of Parliament and the other targeting civil society organisations working in the area of HIV and AIDS.  Subsequently, a debate was held in Parliament about child marriage and the call to eradicate child marriage received overwhelming support from both male and female Members of Parliament in equal measure.  Two public hearings were later held in April, 2017 on matters related to SRHR with support under the Project.

The house may wish to note that in Zambia, a number of activities have been undertaken under the two Projects.  Other than the assignment of staff from Parliament and the National AIDS Council to support implementation of the Projects, a Steering Committee was set up, which also served as a Project Monitoring Committee.  Further, a Technical Working Group and Steering Committee were set up, and an orientation and two meetings were held for the said Technical Working Group.  Additionally, in accordance with Outcome 4 of the Project, a National Dialogue over HIV financing gaps was held on 3rd December, 2015.  The outcome of the National Dialogue was a recommendation by stakeholders that Zambia should set ambitious targets and accelerate the delivery of high-impact HIV prevention and treatment services. The participants called for innovative approaches to expand services, bring them closer to the people and focus on the locations and populations with the highest HIV burden while exploring innovative ways to finance these activities.

A second capacity building workshop was held for members of staff of parliament and line ministries’ HIV focal point persons in September, 2016.  Some of the key outcomes of these interventions were, for example, that several Members of Parliament were able to bring up the issue of health and particularly HIV financing in their debate and during the Vice President’s Question Time with the support of the various officials who were capacitated during the workshops alluded to.

Furthermore, arising from these capacity building activities for both staff of Parliament and MPs, the Committee on Health, Community Development and Social Services, with facilitation and support from the capacitated members of staff, adopted a topical issue on Zambia’s preparedness to implement SDG No 3, Target 3.7 in its Programme of Work for the First Session of the Twelfth National Assembly.  Pursuant to this, the Committee engaged various state and non-state actors, including the National AIDS Council, on the issues of SRHR, by asking them to respond to questions which the Committee generated in relation to, among other things, HIV financing.  The Committee undertook two public hearings in April, 2017, with the outcomes of the public hearings being included in the Committee’s report to Parliament which is expected to be presented in June, 2017.

Mr President, it was noted that a number of Parliaments often do not respond timely to communication from the office of the Secretary General regarding various issues, including the SRHR, HIV and AIDS Governance Project.  Let me reiterate the appeal made at successive Plenary Assembly Sessions by the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes that in many cases, the correspondence from the Secretary General is very time sensitive.  Accordingly, failure by National Parliaments to respond timely may mean that the Forum loses an opportunity to benefit from one measure or another.  By way of example, as a result of their failure to respond timely, many Parliaments had been disadvantaged in that they are not able to participate in various activities, such as the SRHR, HIV and AIDS Governance Project itself, since they did not communicate their commitment and willingness to participate in these activities at the time they were required to do so.  In this light, may I take this opportunity to implore all Member Parliaments of the Forum to ensure implementation of the resolution passed at several Plenary Assembly Sessions that National Parliaments are under obligation to respond timely to requests and calls to action by the secretariat.  Short of this, the Forum will continue to experience the challenges I have highlighted above.

Mr President, I beg to second and I thank you.