Youth Adopt HIV/Aids Strategic Plan

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Youth Adopt HIV/Aids Strategic Plan

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

March 21, 2005

Posted to the web March 21, 2005

Kigali

The Pan-African Youth Organisation Against HIV/AIDS (PAYA) adopted on

Friday a five-year strategic plan to help stop the spread of HIV on

the continent.

Representatives from all 20 countries who attended the five-day

conference in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, endorsed PAYA's campaign.

The five-year plan involves institutional development (strengthening

PAYA's operational capacity at all levels), networking and advocacy

in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

It was hoped that signing protocol agreements with different partners

would strengthen the programme. " We agreed to network in order to

ensure inter-country learning, exchange of best practices and new

innovations in HIV/AIDS, " the conference summary stated.

PAYA also resolved to get gender and youth issues into HIV/AIDS

programmes at national, regional and continental levels.

The organisation's stated mandate is to highlight the importance of

youth in the fight against HIV in Africa, through the identification

of issues that make young people more vulnerable to infection. It

also attempts to ensure that these issues are integrated into the

policies and programmes of African countries.

PAYA was launched in June 2003, to provide African youth with a forum

to exchange experiences and ideas in their common struggle against

HIV/AIDS.