Opening Speech:
Angeline Ackermans
UNAIDS
Intercountry Programme Development Advisor
For Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam & Singapore

Ladies and Gentlemen

A very good morning,

Please allow me to convey to you the apologies and sincere regret of the UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, Ms. Maxine Olson as well as the UNAIDS Theme group Chair in Malaysia, Dr Joel Vanderburg, for not being able to attend this workshop. Due to earlier commitments as well as the sudden ‘emergency’ meeting related to SARS both are unable to attend.

I would like to begin by welcoming you all to this workshop organized by WYF aiming at young people in the ASEAN region and beyond. We in the UN system and in particular UNAIDS are thrilled with the large number of you being here as well as with the commitment shown by the WYF to motivate young people to be active in the response to HIV/AIDS.

Young people should always be focus of attention as they are the group that seems to be most affected and infected in our society but seems to also be a group most unaware of the disease and it’s consequences.

Allow me to say a few words about the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS.

UNAIDS is combining the work of UN organizations (Cosponsors) in the area of HIV/AIDS. These Cosponsors are: UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNDCP, ILO UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank.

As of 1986, the World Health Organization (WHO) had the lead responsibility on AIDS in the United Nations. By the mid-1990s, however, it was becoming clear that the epidemic’s increase and devastating impact on human lives and on social and economic development was creating a crisis that demanded a massively expanded United Nations effort. In January 1996, the United Nations took the innovative step of bringing six United Nations organizations together in a joint and co-sponsored programme, UNAIDS. These original six were joined in April 1999 by UNDCP, and in October 2001 by ILO.

As the main advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS leads, strengthens and supports an expanded response aimed at:
1) Preventing the transmission of HIV
2) Providing care and support
3) Reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS
4) Alleviating the impact of the epidemic

UNAIDS is not a funding agency, although it will support selected activities.

Key in all the work of UNAIDS is seeking new partnerships and creating leadership in the response to HIV that goes beyond political leadership.

Political leadership however is extremely important and we have actually two major events in the recent past that sought the involvement of political leaders: the Millennium Summit and the United Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS).

Member States of the United Nations gathered on 6-8 September 2000 at UN headquarters in New York to participate in the Millennium Summit. This summit was seen as an opportunity to articulate a vision for the UN and the world in the new millennium.

147 Heads of State and Government and 191 nations in total adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The Declaration calls for the use of selected social and economic indicators to measure progress towards implementing the Declaration and the eradication of poverty worldwide by 2015. The indicators (48) are grouped in 8 goals. One of them is directly aiming at combating HIV/AIDS.

The Summit and its Declaration are helpful in the fight against HIV/AIDS because they deal with the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS ad include specific targets regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and care, as well as specific indicators by which to measure these.

The second important event is the UNGASS.

Alarmed by the massive impact of the epidemic, the UN general assembly held a special session on HIV in June 2001. At the meeting, governments agreed on the essential elements of a successful response, which were set out in a “Declaration of Commitment”.

The Declaration outlines specific steps to be taken in prevention, care, alleviation of impact, and mobilization of resources. It also sets out specific targets to achieve by certain dates. In these terms, it represents a consensus on priorities and a monitoring tool for accountability.

Why do I mention these events - because of the countries you are coming from have signed on to these declarations and we can keep them accountable. (Again UNAIDS is assisting Governments in their reporting requirements, monitoring and evaluation) ( In addition regional commitments have been made as well. Reference is made to the ASEAN declaration).

In addition, young people are particularly mentioned in these declarations as a target for prevention, care and support.

The UNGASS declaration of commitment mentions as indicators: Percentage of young people aged 15-24 who both correctly identify ways of preventing sexual transmission of HIV and who reject major misconceptions about HIV transmission and the percentage of young people aged 15-24 reporting to use a condom during sexual intercourse with a non-regular sexual partner.

Bringing down the number of young people infected with HIV is the key indicator in the response to HIV/AIDS.

The reason is obvious.

UNAIDS in December 2002 released the latest estimates for HIV/AIDS in the world, numbers that remind us that the epidemic is growing. Despite all of the attention that the sickness has received over the past decade, more and more people are getting infected each day - 7000 on a daily basis in the age group 15-24.

Currently, there are 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. Last year, for the first time in the epidemic’s history, the number of women living with HIV has risen to 50% of the global total.

The epidemic in Asia and the pacific is growing, with an estimated number of 7.2 million people infected with HIV. About 2.1 million young people (aged 15-24) are living with HIV.

Best current projections suggest that an additional 45 million people will become infected between 2002 and 2010 - unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded, global prevention effort. More than 40% of those infections would occur in Asia and the Pacific (11 million).

It should be stressed, if left to run its natural course, HIV will cause devastation on an unprecedented scale - not only in other countries (Africa) and in neighboring countries (Thailand, Cambodia, India) as is often referred to, but also here, in Malaysia.

HIV/AIDS affects the most productive sectors of our society - in some countries there are only very young children and very old people left to develop the nation, because the productive young adults have died of HIV/AIDS. In other countries, there are hardly any teachers to teach the children or Government officials to govern the country.

The impact of HIV/AIDS is rolling back decades of socio-economic growth in developing countries, and rapidly weakening economic stability. Labor productivity has been cut by up to 50 percent in the hardest-hit countries. Faltering basic services such as health, welfare, education and judicial systems.

We can easily conclude that the future trajectory of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic depends on whether the world can protect young people everywhere against the epidemic and its aftermath.

We can also easily conclude for this region that we are still far from our goals of reaching out to young people. Going back to the earlier mentioned success/impact indicators; how many young people would you feel have correct information related to HIV/AIDS. How many young people and peers have you met who still go “HUH” if you ask them about HIV/AIDS. How many do you know who are using a condom with a non-regular sex partner.

It is recognized that not enough has been done to reach out and to involve young people. It is therefore tremendously welcomed when organizations like WYF take a lead in reaching out to young people and move forward in taking action.

Addressing Stigma and Discrimination is a focus that is acknowledged as key in the response to HIV/AIDS. It was for a reason that this topic has also been selected for the World AIDS Campaign last year and this year.

To put in bluntly - stigma kills.

Stigma at societal level can lead to silence and denial - a refusal to acknowledge and deal with HIV/AIDS. This reinforces ignorance and fear, allowing prejudice to thrive, risky behavior to go unchanged and uncaring behavior to go unchallenged. It also ensures that people living with HIV/AIDS and their families remain silenced and sidelined.

I admit nothing is more easy than blaming others for something that is related to unaccepted behavior in society - drug use, sex work, sex before marriage, extra marital sex etc. This is where the ‘pointing fingers’ are coming from. It is not me - but them. “I am not a drug users and so I am safe. I never had sex with a sex worker so no need for me to worry”

Stigma and discrimination thus hasten the propagation of HIV/AIDS, especially among the young who are more vulnerable (also in terms of peer pressure) than adults. Stigma and discrimination hinder access to information, to services and to help that would allow people to understand the risks, protect themselves, act in their community and country, or accept the illness and the infected people around them.

Stigma and discrimination feed on existing inequalities, power structures, cultural traditions, religious beliefs, xenophobia, racism, gender relations and economic deprivation.

Providing correct and accurate information is key in tackling stigma and discrimination. Education (formal and informal) can break the vicious circle between the epidemic and HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination.

An interesting comparison can be made to SARS, which is affecting some of the countries in this region. SARS kills only 4% of the total people getting infected - far less than the number of people getting infected with HIV. In Malaysia 19 people get infected per day with HIV. In three weeks we only have confirmed 1 SARS case - possible 3.

Most in society knows about SARS and the way it is spreading, websites to visit for the most recent updates, hotlines to call. We have mobilized resources for an instant poster campaign. We have health workers in airports and extra wards in hospitals. We have mouth caps in every pharmacy and shopping malls and we ensure the prices are kept at an affordable rate (if not lower). We discuss it, we advise each other, we compliment action taken, we criticize those that have not, and we organize an ASEAN emergency meeting this weekend to ensure the spread is kept at bay.

You don’t need me to make the comparison to how HIV is being dealt with. If we had dealt with HIV the way we deal with SARS, we would not have 7.2 million (and possibly more) in this part of the world or 51.256 cases in Malaysia today.

What I wanted to illustrate with the above is that when we educate rather than discriminate, we can prevent. When we don’t point fingers, when we do not stigmatize, we can act.

It is our challenge to move into a response that equals the response to SARS. For that we also need commitment and leadership from your side. We need to move away from stigma, discrimination, fear, denial and silence. We need to learn from each other and built on each other’s best practices. Networking and sharing of resources could be a great entry point to enhance the response to HIV/AIDS.

On behalf of UNAIDS I would like to express again our appreciation for the efforts of WYF in taking a lead role to involve and reach out to young people including those young people who have been infected. We are also grateful for those organizations/institutions and individuals that have supported WYF in getting this workshop organized.

For the participants; I wish you a great and fruitful workshop and we are looking forward to the results. We know what works - young people can make a difference!

Thank you.

Angeline Ackermans
UNDP /UNAIDS Representative