ICASA: From the horse’s mouth

13 Dec, 2015 - 00:12 0 Views
ICASA: From the horse’s mouth Participants during ICASA’s Condomise Campaign

The Sunday Mail

ZIMBABWE has been hailed for successfully hosting the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) after it prepared for the international event in just six months. The conference attracted more than 4 500 delegates from across the world. Mr Luc Bodea, the ICASA director, spoke about the event and gave his views on how Africa can eradicate Aids by 2030.

Luc Bodea
Let me start by talking about the history of ICASA.
When the idea to form ICASA was born, those behind the event first converged in Europe where they would meet and discuss issues to do with HIV/Aids in Africa.
Few scientists and activists, however, came together in 1990 and said that they could not continue going to Europe to talk about HIV in Africa. The stakeholders argued that it was high time that they converged on African soil to discuss issues to do with HIV/Aids in Africa.
Such meetings gave birth to an organisation called ‘the Society for AIDS in Africa’ which is the custodian of ICASA.
Let me explain how a country can be given the mandate to host ICASA.
We have a clear bidding process which is also democratic. If any African country wants to host ICASA, that country will simply have to make a formal bid.
In selecting a host country, we look at a number of considerations, chiefly among them being security and the level of government involvement, among other considerations.
Basing on that selective process, Tunisia was given the mandate to host the 2015 edition of ICASA.
However, due to some logistical challenges and security concerns, we decided against holding the event in that country.
After disregarding Tunisia, three countries expressed interest in hosting the event. These were Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
The Health (and Child Care) Minister of Zimbabwe was very smart. Before we knew it, he sent us a letter inviting us for an assessment visit.
When we came for the assessment, we realised that Zimbabwe has the facilities to hold such an important event.
We then signed an agreement with the Government.
I am happy with the caliber of the delegates. We had ministers from across Africa, ambassadors, United Nations agency representatives and also people living with disabilities, with HIV and sex workers.
The best scientists on the African continent were also present.
To us, the conference was indeed a success, one of the best.
We saw the commitment of the Government of Zimbabwe in hosting ICASA through the participation of top Government officials in some of our sessions.
For us, it is a milestone achievement. An event that was planned in a period of less than six months attracted more than 4 500 delegates.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe for a job well done.
The people of Zimbabwe are wonderful and very hospitable, they made us proud to be Africans.
This year the challenges have been many, moving from Tunisia to Zimbabwe was one of the biggest challenges that we faced.
But today we are writing the history of ICASA saying that in Africa, if things are not working out, we find other means of making things work.
The other challenge that we faced had to do with putting the logistics together.
In this regard, I would want to apologise to our stakeholders who faced some logistical challenges. We are appealing to them to accept our apologies. I think that in Africa we are rich, our leaders know that we are rich, they should do the right things and they should be visionaries.
We should be asking ourselves what we are doing to make this world a better place. Do the right things so that your neighbor, brother or sister will feel better.
We cannot fight HIV/ Aids in isolation and we can’t eradicate HIV by 2030 when we are ignoring key populations. We can‘t succeed by leaving some people behind in this fight.
Our governments must put more money into the health systems. Dr Sidibe reiterated that we cannot eradicate Aids by 2030 if Africa cannot produce its own anti-retroviral drugs. Our leadership should start thinking about how to produce local drugs so that our people can access ARVs without any shortages. If we can focus on that, I am sure we can eradicate Aids.
◆ Interview and transcription done by Shamiso Yikoniko .

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