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had achieved remarkable results.

She then reaffirmed that whenever their leaders took bold initiatives and actions, significant progress had always been made. She said she hoped that there would be an extraordinary summit dedicated to taking concrete steps towards an AIDS-free Africa by 2030.

The event, Health Financing and Sustaining Action to End AIDS and Related Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases, was co-hosted by the African Union, NEPAD, UNAIDS and PEPFAR.

During the event, heads of State and government adopted a declaration which includes commitments to take personal responsibility and provide active leadership in the AIDS response, champion science and mobilise domestic political and financial support.

Bekele-Thomas said this was the right time to reflect on previous commitments, implementations, and what had worked and what had not.

Lessons

“The COVID-19 pandemic presented essential lessons that we should use to shape the future of our health systems, the African continent spearheaded collective actions to respond better. Furthermore, we saw the private sector coming together to work with the governments to provide services to the people that needed them,” said Bekele-Thomas.

The CEO said commitments came at a critical time because despite unprecedented progress, AIDS in Africa was far from over. She further said the massive impacts of the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and HIV had exposed huge weaknesses in health systems across Africa and the continent was not on track to achieve an AIDS-free Africa by 2030.

“The coming into force of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) Treaty is an important milestone for the Continent. Aligned and coordinated regulatory systems will open up the continental market for pharmaceuticals and enable our manufacturers to leverage the advantages of the ACFTA,” she said.

The CEO said AUDA-NEPAD would continue taking technical leadership in the operationalisation of the AMA which will bring us a step closer in our fight against AIDS.