Regional ART Policy Dialogue Report.pdf - SAfAIDS

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2. IN CONTEXTThis report seeks to summarise the proceedings of, and share outcomes from, the RegionalART Policy Dialogue (APD) that was held at the Cresta Golfview Hotel in Lusaka Zambia onthe 31 st May, 2007. The theme was “Sustainability of ART Programs in Southern Africa-Isa Regional Approach the Answer?. See program in Annex I. The Regional ART PolicyDialogue drew over 50 participants from 8 southern African countries (more than halfparticipants were from outside Zambia), representing PLHIV organisations, NACs, donorcommunity, media houses from Zambia, USG Partners, CBOs, pharmaceutical companies,legal practitioners, Regional NGOs, SAfAIDS Board of Trustees and program implementingpartners. This report is complemented by a DVD, that documented the RAPD proceedings.Rouzeh Eghtessadi (SAfAIDS Program Manager) welcomed participants to the RAPD. Sheacknowledged the support from USAID and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and theNational AIDS Council of Zambia, and extended appreciation to other donors and partnerspresent. Following the welcome, Ms. Eghtessadi gave an overview of the purpose and themeof the RAPD, and reinforced that this event was apioneering event which to sought to take a positivedirection in terms of extrapolating deliberations that areself-analytical, reflective and progressive. She furtheremphasized that the RAPD seeks to engage keystakeholders that include the civil society organizations,PLHIV, the governments, private sector and donors, onthe progress, challenges and barriers and opportunitieswith respect to national ART programs and explore howthey coagulate in a regional approach. Ms. Eghtessadiencouraged participants to utilise the RAPD platform inidentification of effective strategies for improved access,availability and sustainability of ART roll-out at nationaland regional levels, within a multidisciplinary context.Figure 3: Ms. Eghtessadi (SAfAIDS)Sharing an overview of the RAPD2.1 Participants ProfileA total of 52 participants were present at the RAPD, and were drawn from 8 southern Africancountries (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia andZimbabwe). They represented PLHIV groups, NACs (from Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia),the donor community (SIDA, HIVOS), media houses from Zambia, USG Partners, CBOs,pharmaceutical companies, legal practitioners, Regional NGOs (SATAMO, SAT andSANASO), and program implementing partners. See Annex II for participant’s details. VariousZambian media houses were present to document the RAPD.2.2 Setting The PaceLois Chingandu, the SAfAIDS Executive Director, officially opened the dialogue session and inher opening remarks welcomed all the stakeholders at the dialogue session. She briefed theparticipants on the background to the Regional Policy dialogue; stating how SAfAIDS hadpioneered Policy Dialogues in Zambia, interrogating country policies that existed aroundtreatment access. She stated that owing to the successes and the notable impact of thedialogues in Zambia, SAfAIDS decided to extend them to Swaziland and Lesotho were thePolicy dialogue have also been a huge success, under a USAID funded program in bothKingdoms.8
The success of the Policy Dialogues at national level prompted SAfAIDS to take the PolicyDialogue to regional level and address the issues of Access to Treatment as a regional issuerather than as country specific issues. Lois Chingandu shared that the dialogue series aimedto pioneer increased dialogue and shared radical thinking among stakeholders.Figure 4: Mrs. Lois Chingandu (Executive Director, SAfAIDS),during her opening remarksWith reference to the Abuja 2001 15% benchmark, the2005 African Union Assessment, the WHO 3 by 5initiative, she highlighted how much progress theSADC member states had achieved in the fightagainst HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, andnoted that as a result of these, many policies,frameworks and mechanisms were now in place.Member states where allocating a significantpercentage of their national expenditure to health, witha few countries now manufacturing ARVs and otherson the way to establishing their own industries. Shefurther stated that despite these notable successesthere were still some fundamental challenges beingfaced, some of which are lack of resources toeffectively fight HIV and AIDS - despite manycountries in Africa receiving support from the GlobalFund (GF), PEPFAR and other bilateral andmultilateral agencies as it is far short of the levelsrequired to achieve Universal Access.Mrs. Chingandu raised concerns around there is a urgent need to interrogate “ a regionalapproach the way forward”. She indicated that from a historical perspective Africa is one hugecontinent simply divided by man-made boundaries, boundaries that failed to take note of theexisting cultural groups, creating borders that are unnatural to the African way of life. HIV andAIDS have crossed these borders, killing more people than any other disease in the history ofmankind, in general and Africa to be specific. She went on to define sustainability as being selfreliant, pointing to taking responsibility for ones own future.She pointed out that although the African Union acknowledges the importance of integration,harmonization and regional unity there has been no serious commitment among membercountries to support the cause as evident in the slow pace at which this is happening. Thecurrent trends in HIV and AIDS are slowly revealing that individual approaches alone do notwork. Lastly, she emphasized the need for regional integration and collaboration in the fightagainst HIV and AIDS. She urged SADC member states to come together to design a jointtechnical plan on how to respond to HIV and AIDS, to address key issues of access toessential medicines, ART, regional issues of; human resources, resource mobilization andhealth systems. She emphasized the urgency of a regional policy on ART to facilitate theissues of drug manufacturing, procurement and distribution for the region while alsoaddressing the issues of cross-border trading and movement.9
Page 1 and 2: RegionalAntiretroviralTherapy Polic
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTSContentAcknowledge
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Page 7: 1.2 Purpose of the Regional APDThe
Page 11 and 12: 3. PRESENTATION OVERVIEWS3.1 Region
Page 13 and 14: local/regional producing companies,
Page 15 and 16: the region had no capacity to carry
Page 17 and 18: In the last part of his presentatio
Page 19 and 20: Civil society bodies in the SADC re
Page 21 and 22: 1.00-2.00 p.m. LunchCHAIR:Lois Chin
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