[afro-nets] Leadership takes a major role in the response

[Karin Madison <karin@madisonimages.com>]

Leadership takes a major role in the response
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Young people raised their voices in a bid to be recognized as
leaders in the HIV/AIDS fight on Tuesday. In a morning, moder-
ated session, a combined panel of youth leaders from Zambia, Bo-
livia, USA and the Philippines questioned leaders from the EC,
MTV, UNFPA and a Muslim religious organization out of Bangla-
desh, as a part of the Leadership Program. The youth raised the
issues including lack of access to information, lack of communi-
cation between adults and youth, and especially the need of gov-
ernments and decision-makers to view young people as political
advocates.

The afternoon, political Meet-the-Leaders session responded to
the constant question echoed throughout the session of sustain-
ability. Dr. Peter Piot stated that strong political leadership
was one of the keys to sustainability. "I am a long-distance
runner, not a sprinter," he said. This issue is one of his per-
sonal commitments and he is concerned that too much time has al-
ready been wasted. In the Durban conference in 2000, Dr. Piot
discussed moving from millions to billions in terms of funding,
but was told that he was being irresponsible. Only four years
later, billions in terms of long-term sustainable programs has
become the key word. One can only characterize his leadership as
visionary and absolutely necessary.

Zackie Achmat, South African AIDS activist was the final guest
in the open-forum session which took place in the arena and was
moderated by Bill Roedy (MTV) and Riz Khan (CNN). Disappointed
that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra left the opening cere-
mony, Sunday night before the IDU and PLWA speaker had taken the
floor, stated that his country was also having trouble scaling
up treatment and needed more committed leadership. Although he
feels that all world citizens are facing a crisis of freedom of
speech, he warned that activists would continue their fight and
that current health ministers would eventually be called to an-
swer for their actions or lack thereof. The audience overwhelmed
each of the speakers of this session with submitting more ques-
tions than what was possible to answer, but the Leadership Pro-
gram promised to look at each question and to post answers on
the internet at a later date.

The overall themes that emerged from the sessions of the Leader-
ship Program on Tuesday included accountability amongst politi-
cal leadership, a call to increase the involvement of the pri-
vate sector in the fight, and the necessity of making certain
that current treatment and care that is available in countries
where it has already been provided.

Wednesday's sessions will include a Meet-the-Leaders session
with PLWAs, a presentation on the female face of AIDS and the
second half of the unique, "Meet the Leaders: Across Sectors".
The panelists will include Anthony Fauci of the USA, Kate Thomp-
son of ICW, HRH Princess Rattana-Devi Norodom of Cambodia, and
Hank McKinnell of Pfizer.

--
Karin Madison
mailto:karin@madisonimages.com