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Master of Ceremonies,
Premier,
MECs,
The Chancellor & Vice-Chancellor of North West University,
The UNFPA country representatives and delegates.

The launch today of our HIV/AIDS training course for government planners is an occasion for us to first and foremost re-dedicate ourselves to improving service delivery for our people, especially those living in rural areas.

The planning and delivery of social and economic services must be anchored in and must directly address poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Any training that we provide must revolve around four critical criteria:

1. It must be premised upon an understanding of the struggles for survival being waged by child-headed households and elderly pensioners.

2. It must speak to the Integrated Development Planning of local government.

3. It must enhance our partnerships with faith-based organisations, the business sector, the labour movement, traditional leaders and non-governmental organisations in general.

4. And finally, our training must embrace people living with HIV/AIDS and engender support for families affected by HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

I would like to congratulate the Departments of Social Development, Public Service and Administration, Provincial and Local Government; the South African Management Development Institute; and the South African Local Government Association for responding to this challenge. We thank the United Nations Population Fund for supporting this response.

Through this training programme, we will equip 1 200 government officials at all levels with the tools to plan for the prevention and reduction of the impact of the epidemic.

The curriculum confronts in forthright terms, issues of stigma, silence and denial. It speaks to the gender and age-based dimensions of the epidemic. Gender equality and the empowerment of women are fundamental elements in the reduction of the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV/AIDS. The curriculum also addresses issues of risk, vulnerability, care, treatment and support. It also maps the statutory environment of policies, laws, regulations and rights.

We have contracted nine universities to conduct this programme of capacity building and I commend all the universities involved. Applied research and capacity building are being combined with the social responsibility that underpins community service. Our collective efforts will ensure that we achieve the targets agreed in the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

One of these targets is that by the year 2003, we integrate HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, support and mitigation into the mainstream of development planning. This includes poverty eradication strategies, national budget allocations and sectoral development plans.

At the regional level, we are also committed to implementing the Abuja Declaration and Framework for Action for the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases. A cardinal principle that must guide all are efforts is the tenant that HIV/AIDS is a social and development issue. HIV/AIDS requires that we all become activists and intimately understand how the conjuncture of poverty and HIV/AIDS is affecting family and community life. It requires that we understand and address the various life and death issues that become all important to families. It requires that we understand and address the different response communities and other agencies make to the epidemic.

In the Agape and Inqaba Yokucasha projects in KwaZulu-Natal, it is becoming clear that the issue of community support across racial and class lines needs particular attention. These two projects are making an impact because they are premised upon community initiative, utilise volunteers, and receive the support of faith based organisations and the business sector.

The Masoyi Home and Community-based Care project is having an impact because it addresses the issue of providing support for child headed households. Even here, however, the issue of over coming the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS needs to be addressed on an on-going basis. It is the public act of supporting people and families living with HIV/AIDS that is powerful and empowering.

In QwaQwa, the Free State, it is clear that the principle contributing factors to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, namely poverty and high unemployment, need to be addressed. In these circumstances, the inter-generational dependence on the social grants of older people is a critical issue.

In all of these projects and cases, the linkages between these efforts and the integrated development planning being done at the local level is a critical success fact.

Chairperson, the launch of our HIV/AIDS training course for government planners on the 11th of July - World Population Day - is also an occasion for us to acknowledge the progress made and challenges ahead in the area of population and development.

The launch today of a government-wide HRD strategy on planning for the impact of HIV/AIDS illustrates the linkages between population activities and concrete service delivery. In terms of the population policy, the Department of Social Development is responsible for integrating population trends into development planning.

It is common cause that many Government planning processes do not yet sufficiently take into account the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on policies, programmes and services.

The HIV/AIDS capacity development course for government planners addresses this deficiency. It is clear that the need for capacity building in our country is enormous and the demand for such training programmes be they sector specific or specialised, is certain to rise. The course for government planners also complements other key intersectoral strategies. In particular, the National Integrated Plan for Children affected by and infected by HIV/AIDS.

The implementation and enhancement of our collective responses to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases requires committed leadership at all levels of society. Such leadership is being provided in all sectors of society by compassionate members of the public by the trade union movement, faith-based organisations, the private sector, government, voluntary welfare organisations and the NGO sector in general.

I urge all role players and partners to seize the opportunity of this training programme to building a common understanding of HIV/AIDS as a social and development issue that impacts service delivery. We all also have a responsibility to support and provide an enabling environment for the people that we train. Our sustained collaboration in these efforts is vital.

I thank you

Issued by: Ministry of Social Development, 11 July 2001