Your Excellency Dr. Hala Zayed, Minister of Health and Population, esteemed guests,

It is my great pleasure to join you today for the commemoration of the World AIDS Day 2020. Allow me first to command the vital and tremendous efforts and commitment of GOE and MoHP not only towards the HIV/AIDS response, but into ensuring and improving broader health outcomes and wellbeing for all Egyptian citizens as well as refugees and asylum seekers in the frame of 100 Million Seha Campaign that inspired the whole world as one of the biggest health campaigns led by a state.

I would like to applaud the GOE’s and MoHP response to the unprecedented health challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. UNDP was honored to join hands with MoHP with support from different donors including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Embassy of Canada to procure diagnostic products in order to contribute to MoHP response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis, as well as the MoHP’s effective and successful response, illuminates that no one is safe until we reach, cover and support the most left behind and vulnerable populations.  

During the COVID-19 crisis , In coordination with MoHP, UNDP have joined forces with sister UN agencies to ensure the continuity and sustainability of essential healthcare services including care and support for people living with HIV and individuals affected by HIV to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the most vulnerable individuals and to ensure the gains and progress achieved in our battle against the AIDS epidemic is not jeopardized by  the outbreak of COVID-19.

Guided by the vision of ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health problem by 2030, and despite the impediments created within the COVID-19 context, MoHP took a number of tangible and well recognized measures to strengthen its national response to HIV measures that contributed to  ensuring that people living with HIV sustain access to life-saving treatment by multi-month dispensing of Antiretrovirals as well as reducing their exposure to COVID-19 risk by shifting the distribution of ARVs from Fever Hospitals to health centers in different governorates. Additionally, the ministry adopted the innovative model to sustain HIV services and achieve universal coverage of prevention, treatment and care services among people living with HIV and vulnerable populations by the rolling-out of the harm reduction interventions, which is notably mainstreaming HIV-related services into health issues such as HCV and other blood-borne diseases. This would eliminate stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and significantly increase the uptake of prevention, care and support related health services among people living with HIV and those affected by the disease. Healthy populations are critical to sustainable development—to ending poverty, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, protecting the environment and taking climate action. The UNDP Strategic Plan 2018-2021 recognizes that health is an outcome, indicator and driver of progress across the 2030 Agenda, the SDGs, and the pledge to leave no one behind.

UNDP maintains key partnerships on HIV and health including the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, WHO, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

The next phase of UNDP’s response to COVID-19 is now underway. It is designed to help decision-makers look Beyond Recovery, Towards 2030, making choices and managing complexity and uncertainty in four main areas: governance, social protection, the green economy, and digital disruption, encompassing UNDP’s role as the technical lead in the UN’s socio-economic response.  UNDP has established a series of integrated policy and programme solutions to help achieve results in these four areas with health as a tipping point and an integral component.

In closing, I would like to seize this opportunity to reiterate UNDP’s strong commitment to working with GOE, MoHP, UN Country Team and development partners to strengthen the HIV/AIDS national response and to fast-track Egypt 90-90-90 strategy towards ending AIDS by 2030.

Thank you.