Botswana Attends SADC PF’s ‘50 by 15 Campaign’. 31/1/10
Workshop aims to focus on developing practical strategies for ensuring the reduction of new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2015.
by Kagiso Madibana
31 January 2010
The Southern African Development Community parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), in collaboration with UNAIDS RST, World AIDS Campaign, Soul City Institute, SAT, SAFAIDS, and HEARD recently invited parliaments and civil societies from across the SADC region for its second annual three-day workshop titled the ‘50 by 15 campaign’ which will be held in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The’ 50 by 15” campaign, an initiative of the SADC PF since July 2009, addresses the issue of legislative and social co-operation on the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) of 50% reduction in new infections by 2015, together with the virtual elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission.
The workshop serves as a follow-up on the commitments and priority actions that were decided on at the first meeting that was held in July 16-17th 2009.
Botswana, a country at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS sent two of its representatives to attend the workshop amongst other Members of Parliament from different SADC countries. In attendance are SADC Parliaments of Angola, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as civil society representatives from the region.
The chairman of the parliament special select committee on HIV/AIDS, Shimane Mangole, will leave tomorrow (Monday) for Johannesburg to attend the workshop. He is accompanied by a Member of the SADC PF standing committee on HIV/AIDS, Edwin Batshu.
The ‘50 by 15 campaign’ first came to light in July 2009 when parliamentarians and civil societies from across southern Africa met and came up with a HIV/AIDS prevention agenda.
It was during this meeting that commitments between MPs and civil societies were exchanged and a ten point action plan was developed. A conclusion was reached and then it was agreed that the workshop should focus on commitment to immobilizing leaders and communities in the region around this target and around prevention in general.
It also appreciates the role of legislators and legislatures in providing national leadership on HIV prevention and the participants had made a commitment to working with parliamentary leaders in forwarding prevention.
The SADC PF press release written by Sabelo Mbokazi (Capacity Development Officer -SADC PF), revealed that the workshop will provide a platform for dialogue between legislators and civil society to deliberate on ways in which they can collaborate and partner more effectively, motivating them to introduce motions on the increasing complexity of preventing the spread of HIV in the region.
“The workshop aims to focus on developing practical strategies for ensuring that the “50 by 15 movement is on track to meet the agreed targets that will lead to the realization of preventing new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2015, as well as merge it with other ongoing collaborative efforts by the SADC PF and other Parliamentary-centric organizations, including CSOs, International NGOs.”