Thailand - Africa Workshop on Comprehensive Responses to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care, 22-24 June 2005, Nairobi, Republic of Kenya

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organized Thailand-Africa Workshop on Comprehensive Responses to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care from 22-24 June 2005 in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya. The Workshop aims at forging closer partnerships between Thailand and Africa in tackling the spread of HIV/AIDS. Salient points of the Workshop are as follows:

1. The Workshop brings together a broad spectrum of participants involving in national policy-formulation processes and the operational level as well as the NGOs from 10 countries in Africa, namely, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Representatives form various UN agencies concerned, potential partners and donor countries, and non-governmental organizations also participate in the Workshop.

2. Mr. Preecha Laohapongchana, Deputy Foreign Minister of Thailand delivered the opening remarks at the Workshop. He stressed on forging closer cooperation between Thailand and African countries in coping with HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is indeed a critical human security challenge of the globalizing world. As the present Chair of the Human Security Network, which is a network of like-minded countries from all continents, Thailand has made HIV/AIDS one of her priorities. This Workshop is a part of the Thai policy to promote a human agenda through strengthening partnerships with all relevant stakeholders in addressing this vital human security issues and is expected to pave the way for future cooperation between Thailand and African countries in this field.

3. The module of the Workshop focus on HIV/AIDS comprehensive responses at the national level and community level. For response at the national level, participants exchanged views on anti-retroviral expansion programme, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and condom use. For response at the community level, they stressed sharing of experiences on community response, roles and participation of people living with HIV/AIDS, and response programme concerning youth.

4. Participants exchanged views on guidelines for cooperation between Thailand and Africa on key areas as follows: (1) networking and exchanging of knowledge and experiences; (2) shared strategy to receive funding support from donors; (3) condom use campaign; (4) sharing of experiences in supporting self-reliance of civil society groups working at the community-level level; (5) exchanging of visits and organizing field trips to Thailand; (6) involving educational sector in the next Workshop; (7) utilizing existing frameworks of cooperation in Africa; (8) exchanging of information; (9) maximizing the potential offered by electronic mail in coordination as well as the facility offered by UNDP Country Offices.

5. As a goodwill gesture, Thailand expressed her intention to donate 50,000 condoms to each participating country from Africa.

6. The Workshop is a part of Thailand’s strategic approach to promote cooperation with the developing countries in the field that Thailand has comparative advantage, such as in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The next Workshop will be held in the last quarter of 2005 in Pretoria, South Africa.