Brazzaville, 8 November 2005 -- Seven United Nations Agencies, meeting in Brazzaville last week, adopted a ten-point Declarationto support countries in the African Region to accelerate HIV prevention.

The joint declaration, the first adopted by UN Agencies operating in Africa since the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, was signed on 4 November 2005 in the Congolese capital at the end of a three-day consultation attended by Regional Directors and representatives of UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNICEF and the WHO Regional Office for Africa, which is spearheading the initiative.

The seven regional UN Agencies agreed to ensure synergy in implementing a joint regional plan to support Acceleration of HIV Prevention in the African region including key milestones for 2006 and mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the joint plan.

The objectives of the joint plan are:

• To mobilize the UN system’s technical and programming support for the acceleration of country-driven and owned HIV prevention interventions
• To promote partnerships among regional actors to strengthen support for acceleration of HIV prevention in the African Region
• To promote the collection and use of country strategic information, experiences and evidence to guide the scale-up of HIV prevention
• To mobilize leadership at all levels to support acceleration of HIV prevention efforts 
• To mobilize leadership at all levels, including the community, to support acceleration of HIV prevention efforts 
• To establish a mechanism to manage and monitor implementation of the African Regional UN Joint Plan on Acceleration of HIV prevention
• To support countries in resource mobilization

The seven agencies established an Inter-agency Task Force, which will manage, monitor implementation of the joint plan and report back to the Regional Directors who will meet at least twice a year to discuss progress made.

For further information contact :