Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to this reception. It is a great pleasure to be able to hold it in such beautiful surroundings. I appreciate that so many of you who are directly involved in our common efforts to combat HIV/AIDS were able to come tonight.

Earlier today I had a fruitful meeting with senior Kenyan government officials concerning their efforts in fighting the AIDS epidemic. I have also visited the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and learned more about their amazing achievements. As some of you may know, three teams from MYSA have just participated in the largest youth football tournament in the world – Norway Cup – where they did exceedingly well.

The Government of Norway is convinced that the youth of Africa, and indeed of the whole world, must be the focus of our joint efforts if we are to roll back HIV/AIDS. I was delighted to learn that during Norway Cup a network was established to promote a campaign called "Kicking Aids Out." Youth and sports organizations from Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya will participate in a workshop in Nairobi this November, hosted by MYSA, to discuss ways of deepening and extending this campaign.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Strømme Foundation, the Norwegian Football Association, Norway's Athletics Association and Olympic Committee, Edusport Norway and Norway Cup are all partners in these efforts and will also be attending the workshop.

This is a good example of cooperation and reciprocal capacity building between young people in the north and the south. I hope that this cooperation will be extended to include many more countries in Africa and thus promote south-to-south cooperation.

This applies not only to the fight against HIV/AIDS, but also to the MYSA model in general. Based as it is on the principles of sportsmanship, caring for others and community service, it serves as an excellent role model for others to follow.

I look forward to talking to you individually, hearing your views, learning from your experiences. Consider me your student, as indeed I was a student of African experiences when I put together my Aids Forum last year. The idea of bringing together such a multi-faceted group of individuals and organizations to pursue a common purpose was not a Norwegian invention; it was African – and I stole it.

I hope you will enjoy the refreshments and - not least - the performance by the MYSA song and dance group "Wazalendo".

Thank you for your attention.