WINDHOEK, NOV 30 – SADC Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi,Tuesday urged the regional bloc to take bold steps in addressing pertinent issues that facilitate HIV/AIDS in the southern tip of Africa ahead of the 34th World Aids Day Commemorations, which fall on Wednesday.
Highlighting interventions that will not only propel SADC towards realising vision 2030 but will also play a critical role in ring fencing and protecting collective gains in the effort to fight HIV and AIDS, he said it was necessary to address Gender Based Violence, which he described as “one key driver of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in our Region.”
Most recently during a launch of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, Magosi underscored the importance of addressing gender based violence especially in humanitarian and emergency situations such as COVID -19 stating that all three – Gender based violence, HIV and COVID-19 – were manifesting as a triple epidemic which must be addressed squarely.
He stressed that social and legal barriers to ensure a conducive environment to deliver on the collective mandate to address HIV and AIDS in a comprehensive manner needed to be bolstered, all the while guaranteeing access to comprehensive services for the most vulnerable, including Key Populations as well as Adolescents and Young Women
Magosi highlighted the deploying of Combination Prevention through social, behavioural and biomedical interventions and “ensuring that we put the requisite resources behind all these interventions.” – musa@namibiadailynews.info
