From Dakar to Praia: a call to action

date Published on 02/06/2022

After the Dakar summit, the regional meeting on HIV/AIDS in West and Central Africa held in Praia calls for action. A concerted and harmonised action of civil society actors in order to provide a response to HIV for a better care of vulnerable populations. The Executive Director of the Civil Society Institute believes that no sector should be left behind. Mr. Daouda Diouf said that this meeting will not be just another meeting: "it will be a meeting from which we will come out with concrete proposals". UNAIDS promises to continue working with the Institute to translate the recommendations of this meeting into concrete actions. Cape Verde, for its part, is committed to continuing to work towards achieving the objectives set out in the 2030 Agenda.

A good number of concrete recommendations were made at the end of this regional meeting, known as Praia 2. These included capitalising on the experience of PLHIV and using it to adapt the response, continuing to raise awareness among the population, not forgetting customary chiefs, involving vulnerable populations in discussions, paying particular attention to children, adolescents and young people living with HIV, and to the disabled, and ensuring that community players are paid fairly. The list is far from exhaustive. Ms Stéphanie Seydoux, Ambassador for Global Health in France, announced the launch of a new mechanism for community-based organisations to help them better structure themselves and access traditional sources of funding. All the recommendations will be recorded in a document that will be shared with decision-makers, donors and civil society actors.

For its next project, the Institute intends to focus on the issue of children, adolescents and young people in relation to HIV. This segment of the population is one of the forgotten groups for whom care and the continuum of services are often inadequate.

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