GENEVA, 6 January 2023—Spain’s Ministry of Health has officially announced € 1 million to support UNAIDS’ work on ending AIDS by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“We warmly welcome Spain’s renewed political, technical and financial leadership at this critical time,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “We look forward to continuing the partnership with Spain to end AIDS both within the country and around the world and tackle the inequalities that continue to drive the pandemic. We strongly commend Spain for its actions and encourage more partners to become funders to the Joint Programme.”
In May 2022, the Ms Byanyima visited Spain to meet with the Minister of Health Carolina Darias who praised UNAIDS on its leadership and coordinating role in the global fight to end AIDS. She stressed that the response to HIV remains a top priority and that Spain would look at ways in which it could increase support to global efforts.
In recent weeks, a series of donors, including the UK, Australia and the Netherlands have announced funding commitments and multi-year agreements to UNAIDS to fill the funding gap which was discussed at UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in December 2022.
“Spain is walking the talk by taking an important step to become a donor again and help UNAIDS to deliver on the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026, we congratulate Spain on its efforts and renewed commitment to UNAIDS,” said Ms Byanyima.
UNAIDS has led the global AIDS response since 1996, positioning, defining and scaling up the response to HIV by providing the quality data on the HIV pandemic, calling for action, fostering dialogue and ensuring that communities most affected by HIV have a seat at the decision-making table.
Minister Darias expressed the Spanish Government’s commitment, together with UNAIDS, to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, as well eliminating stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV. She also reaffirmed that ending AIDS will be a priority issue during the next Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2023.
UNAIDS looks forward to continuing to build the partnership with Spain to remove all forms of discrimination and ensure an effective response to HIV, based on evidence and grounded in human rights.
Source : ReliefWeb
