H.E. Prof. Robert Soudre, SAA President

H.E. Dr Tedros Adhanom 'Health Minister of Ethiopia

H.E. Bience Gawanas, Commissioner for Social Affairs

H.E. Amb. Jean Christopher Belliard, Ambassador of France to Ethiopia

Distinguished delegates and organizers

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the organizing committee, the ICASA Secretariat and myself, I would like to thank you all for contributions in many ways to effective delivery of ICASA2011. Participants coming from nearly 103 countries of the world, predominately from Africa have been actively engaged in sharing knowledge and best practices on HIV and AIDS, STls and related conditions such as TB and Malaria in the last 5 days, The preparation and hosting of the 16th ICASA has registered an important milestone in fighting HIV epidemic and other diseases of poverty in Africa and similar countries. By any parameter this conference has met international standards and Ethiopia has been transformed to a level of preparing and hosting large scale international conferences through ICASA 2011. This is because of the diligent work of institutions, partners, and individuals as well as important leadership given by Dr. Tedros Adhanom.

That said I would like to thank important actors in the preparation and hosting of ICASA2011.

I would like to thank the Society for AIDS in Africa, its president Prof. Robert Soudre and its board for giving Ethiopia the opportunity of organizing ICASA2011 and continuously supporting the local host in the preparation and hosting of ICASA. I would like to thank the co-organizers such as International AIDS Society and UNAIDS, and Africaso for their immense contribution to make this conference happen.

The organizing committee, members of the international steering committee, ICASA Coordinating Committee, the secretariat and all partners which have been involved in the preparation and hosting of this conference deserve recognition. Different scientific and other committees and subcommittees and the national event management committee led by MOFA and its various subcommittees deserve appreciation.

The contributions of the international private agencies that worked with us such as Courtesy Associates and KIT have been immense. I would like to thank them.

Among the partners PEPFAR and its implementing partners, USAID, UN families (UNAIDS, UNFPA,UNICEF, WHO, ILO), the world bank, the global fund, bilaterals such as Swedish SIDA, French Embassy, and international agencies such as Gates Foundation and Packard Foundation have contributed in many ways to the success of this conference. Associations of PLHIV, CSOs and faith based organizations have also contributed immensely to this conference. The continued engaged support of African union is exceedingly commendable.

One of the unique phenomenon in ICASA2011 that must be emulated by ICASAs in the future is the contribution of the private sector to this conference. In particular the contribution of HE Dr Sheik Mohammed Alamudi is spectacular and unforgettable in the HIV response in Africa in general and in the preparation of ICASA 2011 in particular. The venue prepared by this philanthropist ensuring international standards has made Ethiopia competitive and proud in its contributions to the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa and globally. It is a reflection of corporate social responsibility par excellence. His Excellency Dr Sheik Alamudi has set unprecedented standard to business leaders in Africa and globally in responding to AIDS epidemic.

All the government institutions in particular FHAPCO, FMOH, FMOFA, FMCT, the Federal Police, the national Revenue authority, the AA municipality, the National Security, Immigration Office, the AA police and others have played pivotal role for the success of this conference.

The banks, in particular the commercial bank of Ethiopia, the Ethiopia telecom, the Ethiopian Power Authority, the Ethiopia Customs, the Ethiopian Airlines, Anbessa City Bus Corporation and the hotel managers and owners association deserve recognition.

The Sheraton Addis has done excellent work in providing the catering service single handedly, therefore, deserves appreciation. The Addis Park and its management as well as our Italian colleagues such as Franco and Giovanni, and all the IT companies who did amazing work in the construction of this beautiful venue have unrelentingly worked day and night to make ready this venue for ICASA in a matter of one month. They deserve appreciation.

I would like to thank all governmental (such as Oromia Regional State) and nongovernmental (such as the Sheraton and the Hilton) who gave us translation equipment and ECA which facilitated to bring interpreters to Ethiopia.

I would like to thank St Paul hospital in handling the health emergency and the city fire fighting brigade to ensure preparedness in the venue.

I would like to thank all delegates, dignitaries in particular President Bush, former president of Botswana, PM Meles Zenawi , the Namibian First Lady and others as well as speakers, co-chairs, moderators and rapporteurs from local and external sources, to avail themselves in ICASA 2011. International dignitaries such as Michel Sidibe, Amb Eric Goosby, Dr Steven Lewis and others deserve many thanks.

The message sent by President Clinton and First Lady of France elevate the prestige of ICASA 2011.

The Theater houses under Addis Ababa municipality and other institutions and individuals that entertained our delegates in the opening and closing sessions also deserve recognition. The same holds true to the Masters of the Ceremony: Henock and Shimelis.

I am sure there important actors I might have forgotten, I hope I will be excused for my forgetfulness. However, we will definitely include in our final report every institutions or individual who tirelessly worked to make this impressive conference a reality.

Those of you who have come from different corners of the world, I wish you safe trip back home.

Thank you indeed.

H.E. Jean Ping- Chairperson of African Union Commission;

H.E. Dr. Tewoderos Adhanom, Minister of Health of Federal

Democratic Republic of Ethiopia;

Professor Robert Soudre- President of SAA;

Dr Yegeremu Abebe - ICASA 2011 President

Invited guests

Ladies and Gentle men,

First and foremost I would like to congratulate all of us for the successful accomplishment of ICASA 2011 which has shed light to many issues.

It is a great pleasure for me to be standing here today representing young women living with HIV as well as the Network of People living with HIV in Ethiopia. As we all are aware of, HIV has the face of African women especially young women with limited awareness and knowledge of their reproductive health rights, young women who are victims of many forms of violence and young women who are economically dependent. As I am one of those women- I urge you to fight for the rights of young women.

I thank and appreciate the ICASA coordinating committee for recognizing our greater involvement and participation in all the program planning for ICASA 2011. I am thankful to the government of Ethiopia for organizing ICASA here in Addis letting us have a chance to participate. The conference has deliberated on the diverse issues of our concern the outcomes of which we believe will be taken up by African leaders as well as funding institutions.

I believe change starts from self and I hope we all take the positive outcomes of this conference to further contribute to the fight against HIV. As we continue to struggle, we will contribute to the global goal of zero new infections, zero stigma and discrimination and zero death from AIDS. I call all African leaders, CSOs and donors to stand in solidarity with us to achieve this goal.

My best wishes to all travelling to their homes and once again I thank you very much!!

Good afternoon, Your Excellencies, all protocol observed. I wish I could speak in Swahili but only 10 people will understand so I will speak in English.

My name is Khadija Mohamed. I am a 14 year old mother. I am not a sex worker but a child who was exploited into sex work. I lacked protection, love and attention from parents. All this made me a child in need of money and so many things in this world. I had to sell sex to survive. Today I am proud to say I am HIV positive and am living my life fruitfully and positively.

As a member of YouthFront I have the honour to present to you this Call for Action.

This call to action represents the commitments and expectations of over 300 young people from across Africa and the Diaspora who have met in Addis Ababa from the 1st to 3rd December 2011 for the ICASA Youth Preconference.

Endorse the Africa Youth Charter as it provides a holistic approach in addressing the realities (opportunities and challenges) of the delivering the youth agenda. It provides a legal platform for the implementation of a comprehensive youth policy framework.

Recalling the recommendations of the ADF V Consensus document (2006) on Youth Leadership in the 21st century, the 3rd Conference of African Ministers in Charge of Youth (COMY III), the African Union Youth Forum (2011), the Malabo AU Heads of States Summit 2011) on Accelerating Youth Development in Africa.

Taking note of the progress made towards achieving MDGs 6 across the continent including the fact that 22 countries in Sub- Saharan Africa have reduced incidence of HIV by 25 percent

Bearing in mind that young people are not merely passive beneficiaries but effective agents of change. Dedicated, enthusiastic and creative, they have a great potential to advocate effectively for their right to SRHR and for the availability of a wide range of services,

Appreciating that,

• Young people in Africa constitute a large proportion of the total African population, they are often unable to access SRH services especially commodities and services that may be available to adults, for a variety of reasons, including affordability and cultural dynamics.
• Progress towards universal access targets have been slow and require concerted and deliberate efforts on the part of all stakeholders.
• Some socio- cultural factors perpetuate stigma and discrimination against youth and represent significant barriers to distribution and utilization of SRH services
• Existing sexual and reproductive health services are insufficiently responsive to the heterogeneous characteristics of the youth particularly in paying attention to the unique needs of certain sub-groups of the population.

We, the youth of Africa, pledge to:

1. Build and strengthen the capacity of youth leaders and youth organizations as part of our response to HIV in Africa
2. Hold our governments accountable to their commitments
3. Incorporate and reinforce sexuality education in our peer education Interventions

We therefore call on governments, partners, donors and all stakeholders to:

• Ensure more strategic allocation of financial resources towards the AIDS response whilst taking innovative steps to increase funding using local sources such as financial transaction, tax and public private partnership.
• Create or expand a budget line for the provision of reproductive Health Commodities for youth.
• Support youth led initiatives to be financially sustainable and take advantage of the African Union Young Volunteer Corps to strengthen our capacity across the African continent.
• Ensure young people's access to comprehensive and targeted sexuality education, following international standards, which acknowledge the specific needs of the diversities of young people including most at risk adolescents, Young People Living with HIV, and especially young sex workers, and those with disabilities.
• Develop a youth HIV database which provides a set of indicators for a baseline against which we can measure progress.
• Ensure availability of strategic age and sex disaggregated data for young people and appropriate indicators for most vulnerable populations in age bands (10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34) for evidence-based programming
• Take specific steps to improve the quality of health services to ensure that they are youth friendly, such as involvement of young health professionals in the design and implementation of HIV services and ensure the elimination of all barriers to access.
• Convene a youth technical group, through the African Union Young Volunteer Corps and in support of the Malabo Decisions that will lead on development of an African HIV / AIDS position and agenda and to revise targets towards the post 2015 discussion.
• Develop a definition of and common targets for universal access for young people.

We accept the responsibility we have as young leaders and pledge to hold ourselves accountable to the same degree that we will hold you accountable.

His Excellency the Minister of health of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, honorable member of the corps diplomatic, Honorable SAA President, Honorable ICASA 2011 Chair and delegates, all due protocol observed.

I would like on behalf of the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and Pacific extend to ICASA 2011 Delegates the message of good will of people from Asia and Pacific to Ethiopians, as well as the Africa Continent as whole.

Dear Honorable delegates, allow me to express my excitement of visiting Ethiopia which helped my country South Korea during Korean War, 61 years ago. I am very grateful for that historical engagement that is still binding the two countries.

I have been invited by Michel Sidibe to attend this wonderful well organized ICASA 2011 conference. Let me inform you that I am impressed by the professionalism and number of the participant of this meeting, following the statistics, ICASA 2011 registered up to 7,000 delegates, this is very important, it shows the beginning of the ownership of the response in Africa. The International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICCAP) do witness the participation of 4,000 delegates; with a population of 8 million people living with HIV and AIDS.

We believe that we are fighting the same battle and we need to build and strengthening a very strong partnership between Africa and Asia in terms of research, capacity building and sharing of knowledge, so that we together can defeat this global epidemic that has caused so much havoc in our community.

I would like to commend the Society for AIDS in Africa and the Federal Government of Ethiopia for giving once again a dynamic punch to our common enemy: the HIV, by organizing this conference in this crucial time of 30 years of AIDS discovery.

We believe that the Global fund, UNAIDS and other partners involved in the struggle against this epidemic will not withdraw back now that we have tangible and palpable results. Together we shall surely overcome all odd.

Dear honorable delegates I hope that you enjoy this beautiful country and are going back to your various endeavor with good souvenir of Ethiopia and ever ready to fight to finish the AIDS in our community. I wish you safe return; let us keep hope alive...

Congratulations for this successful Conference: ICASA 2011

HE Dr Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Health of Ethiopia

HE, Ambassador of France

Chairperson of the ICASA 2011

President of SAA

Representatives of the UN agencies, international and continental organisations

Distinguished Participants

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is indeed my great honor and pleasure to represent the Chairperson of the AU Commission, HE Jean Ping who can unfortunately not be here. He ask me to tell you that he is confident that the outcome of the Conference was according to our expectation and that we will follow up on the outcomes.

Addis Ababa as the venue of ICASA 2011 is most appropriate because it was here in 1963, that Africa leaders met and set the vision of a free and independent Africa. Today, as African citizens we meet here to also set a vision for an AIDS free Africa.

The past four days have been filled with rich discussions that would greatly contribute to Africa's response to HIV and AIDS. I wish to express my heart-felt appreciation to all the participants who have worked tirelessly on keeping HIV on the global and African agenda.

I further wish to remind this gathering that the resolutions we have just adopted should not mark a new beginning but build on previous commitments as much as we need to sharpen our tools and make paradigm shifts in the way we have dealt with HIV. The slogan is quite appropriate: "Own, scale up and sustain"

You have discussed various topics amongst others leadership and the African responds. As far as the AU is concerned, we have provided the political space and commitment starting with the 2001 Abuja Special Summit on HIV/AIDS and Other related infectious diseases, 2006 Abuja Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Other infectious diseases and at the 2010 Kampala Summit. At Abuja 2001, African leaders declared "AIDS a State of Emergency on the Continent". They recognized that the epidemics constitute not only a major health crisis, but also an exceptional threat to Africa's development, social cohesion, political stability, and food security, as well as to the survival and life expectancy of African peoples. They also supported the establishment of the Global Fund apart from committing domestic resources to HIV and AIDS.

Collectively, the African leaders have actively participated in UN and other High Level sessions on AIDS and recently they have presented Common Positions for Africa to the UNGASS which successfully served as Africa's input into the adopted Political Declaration.

Individually, some African leaders have continued to champion for an effective response to AIDS the issue and have taken action in their respective countries that have reversed the spread of the diseases and committed resources to put many people on treatment.

At the 2001 Abuja Summit on HIV/AIDS, TB and Other Related Infectious Diseases, eight Heads of State and Government got together and created AIDS Watch Africa (AWA) as an advocacy platform at Head of State level to monitor the African response and mobilize resources.Over the past ten years, AWA has served as an African-led advocacy and accountability platform to press for the urgent acceleration of continental action to combat HIV/AIDS.

To continue to expand Africa's leadership and to mitigate the risk of backtracking on progress being made to combat HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria over the past decade, African Heads of State and Government and the African Union launched a process in 2011 to revitalize AIDS Watch Africa (AWA)

The ICASA 2011 has built on these previous commitments and it was not an easy task to organize the event. I wish to thank the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for hosting this important event. I further wish to thank the Society for AIDS in Africa, the International Steering Committee in which the AUC participated, the Local Organizing Committee and cooperating partners including the development partners and UN agencies especially UNAIDS under the dynamic and committed leadership of Michel Sidibe.

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

The ICASA is one of the rare opportunities we have in Africa to reflect on our response to HIV and AIDS. I am pleased that this year we have used this opportunity very well.

Once again, I wish thank to you very much for your commitment to make Africa fit for women, men and children and to show that we can and should own the problem and find solutions, we should scale up our interventions and sustain them through mobilizing resources especially domestic resources as a matter of overall development of our countries, search for social justice and equity, human rights and above all saving lives. An HIV free generation is possible. Keeping mothers alive is possible. Getting men involved in the fight is possible. Making the vulnerable visible is possible and giving voice to the voiceless if possible.

Finally, I want to read from the song called Stand Strong Africa, stand strong which was sung by the children with some key message of ICASA:

Stand strong Africa,

Origin of humanity

Africa land of Africans

Source of hope, why the sorrow

Even when financial resources are sparse

And when skilled manpower is scarce

If we learn and develop

It's not too late for Africans

To own the problem and learn the solutions

Stand strong Africa, stand strong

H.E. Ambassador Suleyman Dedefo, Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to Nigeria,

Dear Professor Femi Soyinka, the President of Society for AIDS in Africa,

Distinguished members of Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) Council

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government of Ethiopia and the Federal Ministry of Health, my warmest welcome to the launching of the preparation for the 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), which is to be held with a theme “Own, Scale-up, and Sustain” in Addis Ababa in December 2011. It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to be with all of you who truly are the frontlines of this continent’s response to AIDS.

Excellencies, friends,

It is our great pleasure that Ethiopia was selected to host the 16th ICASA, one of the major international AIDS conferences focusing on Africa.

As you may know, the conference expects to welcome more than 10,000 delegates from around the world including scientists, health workers, policy makers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), community leaders and activists working in the fields of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, Tuberculosis Malaria.

This certainly is the first for Ethiopia to host a conference of this magnitude. With the leadership and commitment from the Government of Ethiopia and development partners, preparations for ICASA 2011 have already begun in earnest.

Indeed, this conference will be an excellent opportunity to take stock of the achievements as well as challenges in the AIDS response and to strengthen partnership 2 among governments, civil societies and development partners, not just within Ethiopiabut also in the Region and across the Globe. Most notably, the year of the conference – 2011 – marks 30 years after AIDS was first discovered as a new disease, 10 years after the UNGASS Political Declaration on AIDS, and 5 years after the Global Declaration towards Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

With this in mind, we have to consider ICASA 2011 to be a unique opportunity and moment – for all of us to look at and take stock of the achievements and challenges towards universal access and the Millennium Development Goals, what has worked well and what did not work, the way forward to consolidate on the achievements and address the challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB & Malaria and to ultimately
meet the millennium Goal 6. As ICASA 2011 theme rightfully declares it, this is our collective opportunity to find sustainable means to OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN the fight against diseases of poverty.

This gathering to launch ICASA 2011 is just the beginning. We have a lot of work to do and a long way to go between now and December 2011. Please note that one year to organize and host a conference of this magnitude is considered a very short time. Therefore, I call upon all stakeholders to be in the mode of shared sense of urgency.

With strong collaboration and commitment from the Government of Ethiopia and ardent support from all of you – and if we join hands and foster our alliances and draw on our existing social network – I have no doubt that Ethiopia will give the Region and the world an exceptional ICASA where the spirit of global partnership will be reinvigorated by living up to ICASA’s theme to OWN, SCALE-UP and SUSTAIN the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.

Thank you