Second CHGA Commissioner's Meeting

Statement by K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Your Excellency, Luisa Dias Diogo, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique,
Honourable Ministers,
Dr. Pascoal Mocumbi, Patron of the Commission,
Fellow Commissioners,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the second meeting of the Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa. It is most fitting for us to convene in this historic city of Maputo, capital of a country that has shown such courage in its twin struggles for independence and peace. And, capital of a nation that has contributed such great leaders to our continent.

Through courage, determination and strong leadership, the people of Mozambique overcame many past trials. I am sure we all agree that we need to adopt a similar spirit in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Madam Prime Minister, we are deeply grateful to the Government of Mozambique for accepting to facilitate this meeting and the hospitality that has been extended to us.

We are also deeply honoured by your presence with us this morning. We could not have hoped for a better start to our deliberations.

Looking back over my past 8 years as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, I am particularly pleased with the collegial and productive relationship that I have developed with Africa’s Finance Ministers.

Many have become good friends, and you, Madam Prime Minister, have been an outstanding friend and colleague. It is therefore a very special delight for me that this meeting is taking place here in Maputo, just a few weeks after you started your new job. Congratulations once again on your appointment.

I am moreover pleased that His Excellency President Mr. Joaquim Chissano has asked you to retain the Finance Ministry portfolio. So, thankfully, we have not lost you from our circle. Instead, we have gained a Prime Minister!!!

You have, of course, stepped into the shoes of another great Mozambican who we are also honoured to have with us today in his capacity as patron of this Commission, Pascoal Mocumbi.

Dr. Mocumbi, you have shown exemplary leadership, especially, in the area we are here to discuss today, HIV/AIDS.

We greatly appreciate the commitment you continue to show to the work of the Commission in your role as Patron. Indeed, you were instrumental in the convening of this meeting here at this particular time. I look forward to forging even closer links with you now that you have begun work with the European and Developing Country Clinical Trials Partnership.

Honourable Ministers, your presence with us this morning is also greatly appreciated and encouraging. As we all know, HIV/AIDS is the greatest leadership challenge in Africa today. By joining us you have clearly shown your keenness to engage with the critical issues that the Commission is tackling and to rise to this challenge.

From the beginning we envisaged the Commission as one that would interact closely with policy makers during its lifetime. In that context, we picked Mozambique as a venue for the second meeting of Commissioners, not only because the former Prime Minister is a Patron, but also because we felt it could provide many opportunities for substantive interaction with key players in the forefront of the battle against the disease.

I must say, however, that my colleagues and I have been most touched by the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from senior officials in the Government of Mozambique such as you, and numerous other policymakers and other stakeholders as we have prepared for this meeting. It has truly exceeded our expectations.

But what has most impressed me, for some time, has been the strong overall leadership that has been shown by the nation’s politicians and civil society in confronting this pandemic.

Indeed, although Mozambique is not one of our focus countries there is much for the Commission to learn from the numerous initiatives that are underway here.

In that regard, we are very keen to follow the implementation of the Treatment Acceleration Programme which will soon begin.

We are sure the lessons learnt from your experience will add a great value to our work.

Let me now take this opportunity to formally welcome my fellow commissioners who are with us today.

Three of you, Seyyid Abdulai and Madeleine Mukamabano and Paulo Teixeira are joining us for the first time.

Seyyid, I am pleased that, although recently retired from the OPEC fund, you remain wholeheartedly committed to tackling some of the toughest development challenges faced by the continent, notably HIV/AIDS.

Madeleine, your dedication to the highlighting issues at the top of the African agenda through your radio programme is internationally renowned. I very much look to forward to your contribution to our discussions and to your reportage on the issues we will be tackling at this meeting.

Paulo, last year you accepted the UN Secretary General’s invitation to serve on a Commission dealing with affairs on a continent that is not your own without hesitation. For that alone we in Africa could be grateful. However, we are particularly pleased you are serving with us on this Commission, because we have so much to gain from your experience of leading Brazil’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

I am also delighted to see so many faces from the last meeting in Addis here with us again.

Your Grace Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Mary Chinery-Hesse, Alan Whiteside, Milly Katana, Dr. Haile Debas, I am grateful that you were once again able “to answer the call”.

Several other Commissioners: Joy Phumaphi, Richard Feachem, Omar Kabbaj, and Abdoulaye Bathily, had planned to be here with us, but regrettably couldn’t at the last minute.

They, and all others of our number who are not with us, will, I am sure, be following reports of our deliberations closely.

Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Dear friends,

We are meeting in profoundly troubling times. Times that call for a profoundly different way of dealing with the most devastating health crisis of our lifetimes.

Naturally, we already view the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is ravaging Africa as an emergency. After all, the death toll from AIDS far exceeds that of most wars.

Urgent action is needed to keep the HIV-infected from getting ill and dying. And to keep those still healthy from being infected.

Yet, this focus on the obvious challenges may be distracting us from a different but equally pressing demand – the need to plan for the long term.

The reasons for this are becoming more and more obvious by the day.

Nearly 30 million people are currently living with the virus on the continent. Life expectancy is dropping to levels not seen since the 1960s and hard won gains in child survival are being reversed.

We know that right here in Mozambique, and in six other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and Zambia life expectancy has now fallen below 40 years of age. We also know that each of these countries, except for Angola, would have had an estimated life expectancy of 50 years or more without AIDS.

In addition, AIDS mortality is producing "population pyramids" that have never been seen before and the implications are not clear.

However, it is clear that by incapacitating and then killing so many people, AIDS selectively destroys human capital - that is, peoples' accumulated life experiences, their human and job skills, and their knowledge and insights built up over a period of years.

The loss of so many people in the prime of their lives represents a devastating blow to a nation's capacity to develop.

HIV/AIDS' implications therefore reach deep into the structure of economies, the capacity of institutions, the integrity of communities and the viability of families.

In summary, HIV/AIDS may currently pose the greatest threat to sustained economic development in Africa.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa was established to help African leaders mount an effective response to this insidious long-term threat.
We aim to press home to our leaders and decision makers the message that HIV threatens their capacity to govern and to help them implement policies to fight back.

To do that we must provide them with sound data, cogent analysis and first-rate advice on formulating policy and implementing it.

We have barely begun to understand the profound socio-economic changes being foreshadowed in our societies, let alone to plan for them.

Let me briefly highlight the kind of problems we must anticipate in three of the worst affected sectors: education, public services and the military.

The loss of capacity to educate the young across Africa is certainly a major challenge. One study in Swaziland, for example, suggested that between 2003 and 2011, there would be a projected need to train 13,000 teachers instead of the 5000 projected without AIDS.

The impact of HIV on public services is also high on the list. The prolonged illness that precedes HIV-related death implies major costs for the state, in absence, in replacement cost, in health insurance and termination benefits, and in the loss of experience and skills.

Furthermore, the pandemic is forcing us to think hard about the long-term security of our nations. It has already penetrated deep into the armed and police forces of our countries. Will these forces, weakened directly by morbidity and mortality be able to keep order? Will they be able to extend beyond national duties to international peacekeeping missions?

I have outlined just three of the challenges but there are many, many more.

Unfortunately, across the African continent, there are presently few facts about the distribution of the epidemic in terms of its impact and the likely ramifications for skills and experience across all major sectors.

No country has begun to comprehensively address the human resource planning issues raised by the HIV epidemic. Few are asking whether or not there is a capacity domestically or externally to meet the needs for critical skills and training in the years to come.

Our governments need to understand the challenges ahead, devise the right policies and programme to meet them, and to mobilize the resources to fund that response.

Those are, therefore, also the challenges for this Commission.

As part of its strategy for addressing these issues, it has developed a template for five country studies in Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo. Within each country, the research will focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on macroeconomic and political governance structures, and identify best practices and transferable knowledge relevant for other countries on the continent.

The Elders say “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”.

And, elders such as the Commission’s other Patron, former President of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who unfortunately couldn’t make it in time for today’s session, have already lit up their bright torches and are striding ahead.

We must follow them with resolve.

Indeed, determination is one of our most potent resources in this mission – determination that our beloved continent shall not be engulfed and defeated by this crisis.

Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Dear friends,

Let me end with the words of Graca Machel, a great daughter of this land who has inspired many here in Mozambique, elsewhere in Africa, and across the world, with her passion, intellect and profound insight.

I want to recall the powerful speech about leadership that she made at the ECA's African Development Forum on AIDS in the year 2000 when she really spoke to us, as she put it, "from the heart."

She told us then that it is a primary obligation of governments to protect their citizens and asked: "What is the point or use of a government if it cannot or will not lead its people? Our governments in Africa must stop looking at all the obstacles holding them back from action and show the true leadership of some of our past great African leaders".

It was that kind of clarion call which inspired the foundation of the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.

She asked our governments to abandon rhetoric and embrace action, to energize our people and mobilize the necessary resources, asking, "If you can mobilize resources for war, why can't you mobilize resources for life?"

Our Commission therefore not only has to find the data that our governments need and to advise them on formulating policy; we need to make Graca Machel’s vision a reality, by doing the advocacy which will bring our governments to a full realization of the challenges ahead.

Fellow Commissioners, that is why today's meeting is so important. We have repeatedly stated that we are an activist Commission. It is time to go out and drive this message home – above all to our governments and to those constituencies that can help us get it across – the academic institutions, the religious institutions, people living with the virus, NGOs and others.

As Graca warned us in 2000: "Make no mistake, what we do about HIV/AIDS in Africa or what we don't do, will influence not only our own nations but relations among nations around the world for generations to come".

Thank you.