the Women in Partnership Against AIDS Summit in Durban
7 August 2007
Theme: 'Leading the Way to a World without AIDS'
Programme Director,
MEC for Health Peggy Nkonyeni,
Councillors,
Representatives of the Women in Partnership Against AIDS,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Sisters, friends and comrades
Good Morning to you all
It is indeed a great honour for me to officially open this Summit of the
Women in Partnership Against AIDS (Wipaa).
As we all know, August is a very significant month in our calendar as
Government and as people of South Africa. This significance is based on the
historical role that women of South Africa played in the fight against the
system that sought to subject the majority of the people of this country to
being second-class citizens in the country of their own and to condemn them to
eternal servitude.
It was during this month in 1956 that the women of South Africa stood up and
said: "Enough is enough." And it is against this background that we grow from
strength to strength as women and as the nation. Fifty-one years later, here we
are, building on that solid foundation.
Programme Director, this two-day Summit, like many other gatherings across
our country during this month, creates a platform for women and girls to
reflect on their daily social and economic challenges as well as acknowledge
the important role women play to improve their circumstances.
This Summit builds-on the achievements of the Wipaa Summit of 2003 where
four themes emerged, namely:
* Women play central role in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) Region
* Managing HIV can postpone and even prevent the onset of AIDS defining
illnesses
* Nutrition as an essential component in improving and prolonging the health of
people infected with the virus
* Healthy living and healthy lifestyles are the key to better health
* Partnership and collaboration across all sectors of society as crucial in
combating HIV and AIDS.
Our Government has always been mindful of the severe impact of gender
imbalances, poverty, malnutrition, unemployment to the general population of
our country, and the role these social determinants of health play in further
disempowering the most vulnerable group of our society � women, children and
the elderly.
Because of this unequal society, we are aware that relationships tend to be
much more transactional and the role this plays in fuelling HIV infections. The
majority of our people are poor and dependent on men and under those
circumstances may not be free to take decisions about their health and life in
general.
And although we uphold the right of dignity as Government, we have observed
a continued disregard of the safety of women and children in our communities.
The recent alleged incident in Umlazi township, where a young women was
attacked for wearing pants and her home gutted down, attest to that. This is an
unfortunate situation that has to be condemned.
On the other hand, HIV and AIDS disproportionately affect women compared to
men. And as Government, we are doing everything within the limited resources to
curb the spread of HIV and reduce the severe impact of AIDS on our
communities.
The theme of this Summit, 'Leading the Way to a World without AIDS,'
therefore places a huge responsibility upon all of us to revisit the role of
both women and men as important partners in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Our first challenge is that we need to understand and respond to the
realities and circumstances that render people vulnerable to HIV infection,
secondly to ensure safer societies and safer homes where women and children are
allowed to live their lives free from the threat of physical or emotional abuse
and harassment.
Programme Director, the vision of a world without AIDS (or even a South
Africa without AIDS) could be realised when we eradicate the social and
economic conditions that drive HIV infections, which brings me to another
challenge. We need to focus on these conditions so that our collective and
individual response would be better informed and thus more effective.
Over the past year, our Department of Health has made a number of
significant shifts aimed at the strengthening and re-alignment of our response
to HIV and AIDS. Most of us at the Summit are probably familiar with the newly
launched HIV and AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) National
Strategic Plan (NSP) for 2007 to 2011, which builds-on the achievements of the
Strategic Plan of 2000 to 2005.
As part of our campaign to promote partnerships, this Summit, among other
things seek to mobilise partnerships in our efforts to enhance the
implementation of the NSP. The Plan acknowledges the good that has been done
over the past decade. It also reinforces the country's multi-sectoral response
to HIV and AIDS and its impact.
The Summit also comes after the release of the Report of the National HIV
and Syphilis Prevalence Survey, which indicated a decrease in HIV prevalence
amongst pregnant women from 30,2% in 2005 to 29,1% in 2006. These are positive
signs and we need to sustain the trend by continuing to strengthen our
prevention programmes.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the
good work done by our partners, particularly the ordinary men and women in our
communities and those operating in under-resourced settings since the birth of
the Partnership Against AIDS in 1998. The Summit presents us with the
opportunity to re-affirm our commitments in this regard.
Although our Government is committed to the strengthening of health systems,
it remains the responsibility of each individual to modify risky behaviour, to
take the necessary protective precautions and to strive towards more health
affirming lifestyles.
We want to encourage parents to participate more actively in the lives of
children. We need to make sure that children focus on their education and do
not divert to such things as being sexually active or pregnant earlier in their
lives. Ladies and Gentlemen, for us as a nation perhaps we need to ask
ourselves: are we doing enough in our own homes and neighbourhoods to engender
life-affirming skills among our youth?
I would like to call upon all of us gathered here to use this Summit to
deepen the partnerships that will enable us to find solutions to these
challenges. As we deliberate in our commissions, let us be mindful of the
expectations of the millions of our people infected and affected by HIV and
AIDS.
The topics allocated to various commissions suggest that you will have an
opportunity to interrogate some of the critical issues affecting women. These
issues include:
* alleviation of poverty
* economic Empowerment
* teenage pregnancy
* accelerated HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment.
I would like to wish you well in your deliberations. I believe that if we
approach the challenge HIV and AIDS with the same determination and spirit as
that of the women who marched to the Union Building in 1956, we shall achieve a
world that is without HIV.
Programme Director, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to
declare this Summit opened.
Malibongwe
Issued by: Department of Health
7 August 2007
