Incoming UNAIDS Country Director meets Stakeholders Working on HIV Issues

On 7 July, 2014, in Nairobi, UNAIDS organized a meeting for representatives of civil society, networks of persons living with HIV, key populations and representatives of the women’s rights movement. The meeting provided an opportunity for civil society members to have an interactive dialogue with the incoming UNAIDS Country Director Dr. Jantine Jacobi and the UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr. Michel Sidibe.

During the CSO dialogue that was moderated by Mr. Allan Maleche, Executive Director of KELIN, key issues were raised, including:
• The need to ensure that all work done in the context of HIV is in line with the provisions of the Constitution of Kenya 2010;
• The need to have meaningful involvement of CSOs in UNAIDS country consultative processes relating to issues of HIV;
• The need to ensure that HIV is not left out of the ongoing post 2015 Millennium Development goals discussion;
• The need to ensure mothers are kept alive, and issues of sexual reproductive health rights of women living with HIV are addressed, especially with regard to forced and coerced sterilization;
• The question of ensuring sustainable financing mechanisms in Kenya for HIV;
• Demands by civil society orgnisations for institutional and technical support from UNAIDS, given the shrinking donor support to civil society organisations working on HIV issues.

Dr. Jantine Jacobi, in her response, emphasized the need to more, regular meetings with CSOs, so as to get a good picture of what is happening on the ground to inform their technical support to other. She emphasized the need to leverage on the provisions of the Constitution to ensure that the rights based approach and respect for human rights. The forum came to a close with Michel Sidibe requesting for three key issues the Kenyan Civil Society would like his statement for the 20th International AIDS Conference, to address.