Statement On The Occasion Of World AIDS Day
At Addis Ababa City hall
1 December 2004

Bunmi Makinwa
UNAIDS Country Coordinator and Representative for African Regional Organizations

Your Excellency Ato Girma Woldegiorgis, President of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Your Excellency W/ro Netsanet Asfaw, State Minister, Ministry of Information
Your Excellency Ato Arkebe Ekubay, Mayor of Addis Ababa
Esteemed Ato Negatu Mereke, Head of HAPCO;
Esteemed Dr. Eyob Kamil, Head, Regional Health Bureau of Addis
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, sisters, and brothers

‘Have you heard me today?’ This slogan for the World AIDS Day complements the theme of the day – Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS.

It is a powerful call on all of us: political leaders, religious heads, community members, workers, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, cousins to listen to the story of women, girls, HIV and AIDS. Increasingly the face of AIDS is becoming mostly a woman’s face. At this time, let it be known that women and girls are carrying more of the burden of the epidemic. And we must stop the trend.

We are in a world where the epidemic continues to spread in every region. The number of people living with HIV globally has reached its highest level with close to 40 million people, up from 36.6 million in 2002. In Sub-Saharan Africa, despite some god news that the epidemic appears to be stabilizing, the region is by far the worst affected with 25.4 million people.

In Ethiopia we have about 1.5 million people living with HIV or AIDS. Women constitutes 51%; of the total adults (15 – 49). Today the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female. This has profound implications—we will not be able to stop this epidemic unless we put women at the heart of the response to AIDS.

Prevention methods such as the “ABC” approach – Abstinence, Be faithful, and use Condoms – are good but not enough to protect women where gender inequality is pervasive. We must ensure that women can choose marriage, to decide when and with whom they have sex, and to successfully negotiate condom use. We must ensure that women and girls have equal and fair political, social and economical playground now than ever.

Excellencies, distinguished guests and dear participants

Allow me to quote from the message of UNAIDS Executive Director, Dr. Peter Piot to the world today “Half of all women live on less than $2 a day; illiteracy rates among women are nearly 50 per cent higher than among men in many countries; only a small fraction of land is owned by women; and inheritance laws and criminal laws make it easy for men to take advantage of women. Each of these realities makes women more vulnerable to HIV”.

He continues: “We need to give girls everywhere a chance at education, and petition governments around the world to enable women to own and inherit property. Women who are economically self-sufficient and secure are far less vulnerable to HIV. We need to get laws passed everywhere that make domestic abuse illegal, that treat rape as real crime to be punished harshly”

‘Have you heard me today?’ – Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS. We in Ethiopia recognize these problems and we are tackling them. Much more still needs to be done.AIDS kefteygna chigr neew.

Let me share with you a thought or two about war, conflict and HIV/AIDS.

The chaotic and brutal circumstances of war aggravate all the factors that fuel the HIV/AIDS crisis. War breaks up families and communities, creating millions of refugees and placing women and children in great peril of sexual attack or systematic rape used to terrorise opposing forces. It destroys the health services that might have been able to identify the diseases associated with HIV/AIDS or screen the blood transfusions that might transmit it.

And war destroys the education systems that might have been able to teach prevention and slow the spread of the disease. AIDS contributes to political instability by leaving millions of children orphaned and by killing teachers, health workers, and other public servants.

The relationship between AIDS and conflict is complex, but is mutually reinforcing. And both are compounded by poverty and the gender dimensions of conflict and the pandemic. Of the 17 countries with over 100,000 children orphaned by AIDS, 13 are in conflict or on the brink of emergency, and 13 are heavily indebted poor countries.

We therefore must campaign for peace. We must avoid conflicts and strengthen understanding.

We also have one important tool at arms length - mobilizing the community against the issues that make women and girls more vulnerable. One of the activities that we plan is to collaborate with the National Coalition for Women Against HIV/AIDS in a four-month campaign to see and feel what really the issues of women and HIV/AIDS are.

If we can do a better job preventing HIV among women and girls, we can ultimately get ahead of the epidemic and save millions upon millions of lives. The good news is we are seeing more women and men joining together to support, energize and drive the response against AIDS and to improve the lives of women and girls.

‘Have you heard me today?’ – Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS. We in Ethiopia recognize these problems and we are tackling them. Much more still needs to be done.

Thank you very much. Betam Amasegnalhu.