Africa Development Forum Civil Society Organization Consultations

Keynote Address

by
Lalla Ben Barka
Deputy Executive Secretary
Economic Commission for Africa
Addis Ababa, 2 December 2000

Mr. Chairman,
Dear Colleagues from the CSO Community,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to welcome so many friends and colleagues to the African Development Form. The theme of this second African Development Forum is "AIDS: the Greatest Leadership Challenge".

We have organized this pre-ADF CSO meeting to identify the leadership responsibilities that fall upon our civil society community and consider the strategies and initiatives we need to adopt in combating the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

Specifically, the objective of this meeting is to provide a forum for CSO participants to think about and discuss their input to the ADF meeting and consult on how to build networks of CSOs across Africa around an HIV/AIDS response.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Simply put, the crises of HIV/AIDS are the single most challenge facing the African continent today. The level of death, disruption and socio economic chaos is worse than any famine, war or natural disaster that we faced in our history. HIV/AIDS has already caused incalculable damages to our societies and continues to decimate our population unabated. Millions of men, women and children have already lost their lives, more than 25 million Africans are HIV positive and that number is likely to increase before the pandemic can be contained.

HIV/AIDS is not just a health crisis, it is also the foremost economic and social crises we face in the continent. Aside from this human tragedy, the pandemic has wiped out many of the socio-economic gains of the past three decades. Life expectancy in many societies has gone down, health facilities are completely overwhelmed, in fact most have reached their breaking points and have simply given-up on treating and caring for AIDS patients. Its effect on our

development effort has been very devastating. Many communities have lost their most economically productive human resources and are burdened with the task of caring for important number of orphans and elderly. Many governments are forced to divert their scare resources from the productive sector to combating the disease and mitigate its worst effects.

Mr. chairman,

The challenge of HIV/AIDS calls for the best leadership the continent can offer. The pandemic will require the active engagement of the broader spectrum of society at all level, from the family and household through civil society, national political leadership to the international level. Civil society organizations in particular have an important and critical leadership role to play. In today's Africa where so much responsibility for coping with adversity falls upon communities themselves, the CSO level of leadership can be one of the most influential and important component.

Civil society organizations have already taken leadership roles in many African countries in combating HIV/AIDS. They have taken initiatives that have already met important leadership challenges. Among initiatives taken by CSOs are:

• Programmatic engagement: many NGOs and community based organizations work with government structures in providing basic medical and social services. Their flexibility, involvement and access to the poor and marginalized has sometimes produced excellent effects.

• Social mobilization: the issue of social mobilization is at the heart of any strategy that combats the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A large component of the effort against AIDS is changing public attitudes and perceptions and increasing knowledge about the disease. CSOs have played important roles in providing accurate information to the public, breaking taboos, educating the public about protection measures and giving safe refuge to those affected by the disease. · Public policy advocacy: CSOs have been particularly effective in pressuring governments to admit the extent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in their countries and urging them to develop sustained and effective public policy intervention. They continuously monitor the effective implementation of these policies and hold accountable the responsible ministries and agencies.

• Human rights protection: The very minimal duty of the state and society is to respect and protect the legal rights of these people and be accepted as full members of their communities. NGOs have played a major role in fighting against discrimination and ill-treatment of people living with HIV/Aids.

• International networking: in this area CSOs have shown great strength, they are able to network, learn lessons quickly, cross-fertilize and apply pressure across countries. International pressure is often exercised on many levels including national political leadership, international institutions, pharmaceutical and medical establishments and others.

Mr. chairman,
Distinguished participants,
Friends,

I have every confidence that your deliberation today and the set of recommendations you will develop will be invaluable input to the African Development Forum. Your recommendations will have to significantly influence the decisions and actions of the forum and we must ensure that issues important to CSO are mainstreamed in the forum outcome.

I urge everyone to fully and actively participate both in the plenary and the break out sessions.

Thank you for your attention.