Angola

Poverty Pillar attends HIV/AIDS Focal Points Workshop in South Africa

Johannesburg, 29 July 2009 - The UNDP Sub-regional office for Eastern and Southern Africa held its first regular annual meeting from 27 to 28 July, 2009, in Johannesburg, South Africa to review the Agency’s role in Joint HIV/AIDS Programmes, among other related topics.

UNDP Angola’s Assistant to the Country Director for the Poverty Pillar, Ms. Kamia Carvalho, who was among the delegates, reported back that the meeting updated the focal points on the current HIV/AIDS situation in the region, so as to enable develop a common understanding of why UNDP’s work on gender, governance, human rights and integrating HIV into development is so important in responding to HIV in the region.

“The focal points were strengthened to understand how Joint UN HIV/AIDS Programmes operate and how UNDP can best contribute to Joint Programmes. At the same time the meeting enabled the sharing of priorities for technical support and policy advisory services from the Regional HIV Team”, Ms. Carvalho said.

Reporting on the Angola case, Ms. Carvalho said that based on Angola’s United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) report the HIV/Prevalence is 2, 1% as per the Ministry of Health (placed higher at 5, 3% by the Ministry of Planning) and that the ratio of women to men with HIV is 0.8:1, whereas, the number of people receiving treatment in HIV/AIDS was estimated at more than 10,000 from the more than 25,000 cases (adults) accompanied.

An email correspondence network was established after the meeting, and focal points were encouraged to share experiences, information, and request for technical assistance.

It should be recalled that UNPD’s role in the Joint Programme is for institutional support to the national AIDS Coordination structures, namely the Provincial AIDS Committees, and the decentralization of the response.

UNDP Angola is working in HIV/AIDS in two fronts, as a Global Fund recipient that has a specific component of HIV/AIDS and as integral part on the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS with specific responsibilities with regards to institutional support and decentralization of the response to HIV/AIDS.