UNGASS Rwanda report 2006.pdf

Foreword
We have made substantial progress in our fight against HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. Of this we can be proud. This success in bringing this issue to the attention of Rwandans at all levels of the society, in mobilising our own resources as well as support from partners, has resulted in demonstrable gains. But HIV/AIDS is not a condition that allows us to rest on our laurels. We have more to do.
First, we must maintain the momentum we have reached, and this will require a stronger fight to consolidate the gains we have made. As with most programmes, the initial energy into a programme can dissipate with time, as fatigue sets in, as an asymptote of returns is reached. We cannot afford to relax, as it will cost us more in the long run – in terms of human lives destroyed, financial capacities
eroded, and reduced standard of living. We must therefore ensure a balance across HIV prevention, treatment and mitigation.
Second, we need to build on the excellent collaboration that we have developed with partners. We have achieved so much together, but we have the potential to do even better by being more efficient. In this respect, we will encourage partners to support our national efforts with better alignment and integration of their activities within our vision, which has been developed to combat and minimise the effect of HIV/AIDS within our country context. The lack of harmonisation among partners is one of the barriers we need to overcome, as it dilutes synergies to achieve common objectives.
We are in a new phase of the epidemic, in which we need to recognise that external support cannot continue indefinitely. We must therefore look carefully at sustainability issues in programmes we have initiated with partner support, and continue to further integrate HIV into the broader development framework for poverty reduction.
Finally, in the spirit of ‘three ones for the three big’ campaign, we must improve the link and the synergy found in the response for HIV with other major killing and debilitating diseases, notably malaria and tuberculosis.