The Global Citizen’s Summit came to a close with a renewed call for stakeholders to re-think strategies for dealing with HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and management.
One key recommendation is that communities must take leadership in mapping their own home – grown strategies against HIV and AIDS.
“Traditionally every community designed it own ways of managing diseases and confidentiality. What we should to do as NGOs is to harness this knowledge; not impose our ideas on them”, noted Ruth Laibon Masha, HIV and AIDS Coordinator at ActionAid International Kenya.
Participants underscored the need for separation of roles where governments take lead in provision of treatment while NGOs specialize in support services like promotion of Voluntary Counseling and Testing Services, awareness creation and policy advocacy.
They noted that parallel treatment systems confuse people and undermine the commitment to access to treatment for all.
“Apart from giving sophisticated regiments, NGOs provide food rations. As a result, people flock to the NGOs centers yet unlike governments, NGOs do not have the capacity or the mandate to provide service to everybody. We must invest in our public hospitals”, emphasized Albert Mutukhuzi, Programme Officer at Anglican Church of Democratic Republic of Congo.
To curb the high ARVs default rates, where citizens are afraid of sustainability, the participants urged for laws that will see the governments and donors sign a lifetime commitment of drug supply to People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs), to facilitate universal access.
However emphasis is on PLWHA- sensitive laws, devoid of any conditionalities in accessing the drugs.
Other critical declarations taken by the summit is the revival of social constructs that engage and include men in home-based care and prevention.
The participants also stressed the importance of the role of traditional media in changing attitudes and perception among communities.