Check against delivery

Reverend Byamugisha, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here tonight. I am very honoured to have been asked by Strømmestiftelsen to present the award "Hjelp til Selvhjelp" for 2002 to Reverend Gideon Byamugisha. The reverend will in a few minutes receive the award for his "outstanding contributions in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the suffering and poverty that follows this disease".

Tonight – Reverend Gideon - you are the recipient of a prestigious award. Throughout your life, however, you have given infinitely more than you have received. Since being infected yourself in the late 1980s, you have courageously become the face for the millions of people infected by HIV, not only in Uganda, but also throughout Africa and, I would say, throughout the world. In Uganda, you have lifted the HIV/AIDS issue from a subject of silent condemnation to a top agenda item where the church is actively involved. Since then, the AIDS epidemic in Uganda has been retreating, and people are changing their lifestyles. Your personal contribution to this positive change has been beyond measure.

The whole world is looking to Uganda to learn how to fight AIDS. You are an example and an inspiration throughout the world. Two things are important in the fight against HIV/AIDS; - political commitment from the top and broad community- and civil sector- participation engaging bottom-up. In Uganda you have both. These are important reasons behind your success.

Now we all know that HIV/AIDS is not only an African problem, it is a global crisis and a challenge to us all. These days, the number of infected people is growing fastest on our own doorstep, in Russia, and also in far-away China.

In the afterword to a recent book called A Broken Landscape: - HIV & AIDS in Africa you describe the complex and global nature of the challenge very eloquently - I quote:

"Aids isn’t just a disease. It is a symptom of something deeper which has gone wrong within the global family. It reveals our broken relationships, between individuals, communities and nations. It exposes how we treat and support each other, and where we are silent. It shows us flaws in the way we educate each other, and the way we look at each other as communities, races, nations, classes, sexes, and between age groups. Aids insists that it is time for us to sit down and address all the things we have been quiet about – sexuality, poverty, and the way we handle our relationships from the family level to the global level."

Let’s take a hard look at the realities. If political leadership and resources are not rapidly mobilized and increased, the UN has stated that 100 million people will be infected worldwide by 2010. Fourteen thousand people are being infected by HIV every day! Ninety-five per cent of them live in developing countries. It is the young, the country’s future, those who should be able to work and take care of their children, who are dying of AIDS.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where most of our development partners are, the epidemic is undermining educational programmes, health systems, the public administration and agriculture – the entire fabric of society. It is reversing decades of development gains. Those countries that are hardest hit may have their GDP reduced by more than 20 per cent by 2020 because of AIDS.

Our fight against HIV/AIDS must be an integral part of our fight against poverty. AIDS causes poverty, - and poverty undermines our struggle to combat AIDS. It is as simple - and as difficult - as that.

Young people die, households lose their breadwinners, families break up, and children lose their parents. Orphans and children with sick parents are less likely to attend school. Lack of education and the necessary life skills puts them at risk of contracting HIV. AIDS seriously threatens the achievement of all the other Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction, maternal and child health, education and gender equality.

The good news is that the growth of the epidemic is not inevitable or irreversible. We know how to prevent the spread of HIV. The scale of the epidemic can be greatly reduced if people throughout the world show commitment themselves and demand commitment from their leaders, both in politics and in civil society. Global commitment has increased. At the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS last year national leaders set concrete targets for their countries’ efforts. A Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been established. Still, the UN reports that we need to triple the resources spent on AIDS, from the current 3 billion dollars to 10 billion, if we are to contain the epidemic.

Here, the participation of international development partners is vital. All partners must contribute their share. It is crucial to integrate HIV/AIDS into wider development- and poverty reduction- strategies.

We also have to work together to strengthen the social sector and health systems. Effective health systems and improved health care can help reduce the hopelessness surrounding the epidemic.

We must do more for the 40 million plus who are living with HIV/AIDS today. We have to strengthen health systems. They have to meet the growing demands for adequate care and life-prolonging medicines.

For a start, more has to be done to reduce the cost of essential drugs. We must remove as far as possible all obstacles to the production, export and import of generic drugs.

The fight against HIV/AIDS requires much more than health interventions. On the ground, increased access to education and information is vital. In China, for instance, only 4 per cent of the adults know how to protect themselves and others from HIV. This is not a good starting point for containing the epidemic. We find the same pattern in many of our partner countries. We have to make sure that children and young people get the information and the life skills they need.

The bottom line is that preventing HIV is about changing sexual behaviour. Knowledge is not enough. This is about empowerment. Women, young girls and boys must be empowered so that they can truly protect themselves.

Reverend Gideon, - this is why the kind of work that you have been doing on the ground is so important. Through your "Young Leopard clubs" for children and the "Post test clubs" for young people, you are providing both information and essential life skills, and the model you have developed has been adopted by hundreds of congregations.

We for our part, are supporting NGOs such as Strømmestiftelsen – enabling them to be strong partners in development. I firmly believe that local communities and NGOs are very important agents for change, and we will continue to give these change agents our full support.

Over the next three years we are increasing the resources allocated for education purposes in our development assistance significantly. Education is the most powerful tool for promoting development, and it also enables people to protect themselves against diseases including HIV/Aids.

In our dialogues with partner countries we emphasize the importance of treating AIDS as a development problem and not simply as just another health problem.

We need to mobilize actors right across the board in the fight against AIDS. National policies should put local districts and communities in a position to cope with the epidemic. Trade unions must be mobilized to protect their members, employers to protect their workers, churches to protect and care for their congregations and local communities.

The Anglican Church is doing an impressive job in many countries. There are many inspiring stories of its efforts, too many for me to tell here. Let me just remind the audience of the many thousands of volunteers who are daily providing support and compassion for those who are sick and dying. These men, women and children are heroes in the true meaning of the word. The Good Samaritan Clubs started by you, Reverend Gideon, is part of this movement. There is a lot of good and inspiring work going on. For example, in Tanzania, the church has openly discussed the use of condoms and has endorsed their use in order to save lives. In opposition to the signals from the Vatican, some courageous Catholic priests are also now advocating the use of condoms to save lives.

In Uganda, the church has been leading the way in fighting discrimination and stigmatization, and people living with HIV/AIDS are being welcomed. Reverend Gideon, you have contributed significantly to the church’s success in removing the stigma from people living with AIDS. Thank you for constantly reminding us that being infected is not a sin, and that there is no division between "them and us". Let’s put an end to abuse, discrimination and stigmatization. Openness, as you have found, promotes respect.

In this context Nelson Mandela is also showing the way by speaking openly about those of his relatives who are dying of AIDS-related illnesses. We must learn from his example by fighting HIV/AIDS and not its victims. We must always promote and protect human rights. The right to development. The right to health. The right to life. The right to human dignity for all.

On the occasion of the Worlds Aids day two years ago Mr. Mandela said that:

"Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status".

More than anyone else, reverend Gideon, you have lead by example. You have addressed all the things that we have been quiet about. You have not been quiet. You have broken the taboos. You have been vocal. You have given the victims a name, a face. You have been a visible example of human dignity for all.

For all of these reasons we are grateful. For all of these reasons I hereby present you the "Hjelp til selvhjelp"-award for 2002.

Congratulations!