By King’s Office Correspondent
NEW YORK, USA — His Majesty the King has pledged the government’s commitment to ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat in Eswatini by 2030. He told the UN family that this goal remains a national priority.
“To save lives and advance the end of the HIV pandemic and ensure that no one is left behind, I pledge that my government will continue to upscale HIV and other public health services, ensure that all Emaswati have equal access to these services, and continue to target the hard-to-reach and primarily discriminated populations,” he committed.
He also pledged that the country would strengthen the systemic and multisectoral approaches that aim to address inequalities that hinder service uptake to ensure that the national HIV response is equitable and gender transformative in its approach.
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He further assured that strengthening the people-centred multisectoral systems in the HIV response and allowing communities to take the lead in the fight is critical in alignment with the call to end AIDS as a health and development issue.
He shared that the community-owned and led systems that Eswatini has built over the years to end AIDS lay the foundation for containing health emergencies and developing local HIV responses to effectively respond to the emerging micro-epidemic targeting women, Adolescent Girls, and Young Women (AGYW), men, and key populations.
“We will continue investing domestic resources towards the procurement of Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), managing antiretroviral treatment, and comprehensive integration of the HIV response in all development agendas,” said the King.
In addition, he said the government was also committed to meeting the UN Agenda 2030 targets.
He concluded: “As a country, we continuously reflect on our progress and where we need to improve. I pledge on behalf of the Kingdom of Eswatini to ascribe to the commitments in the UN General Assembly ‘Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending inequalities and getting on track to end AIDS by 2030 as part of the global community’, like many of you here.”
