WITH COMMUNITIES WE CAN END AIDS

UNAIDS Malawi says we should not only sustain the gains against AIDS but finish what was started. David Chipanta, Malawi’s UNAIDS Country Director made this remark during national dialogue organized by a consortium of civil society organisations working on health advocacy. The meeting whose theme was “sustaining the gains: advancing community led solutions amidst declining donor support” was held at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe on 26th June 2025.

Stating elements of the national HIV landscape, Chipanta noted a hard truth that HIV was not over. In 2024 alone Malawi reported 14,000 people that acquired HIV influenced by 83 adolescent girls and young women every week of the year. This means losing focus now would mean risking reversing all the country has done to fight against HIV and AIDS. He said there is need to face new challenges in the continued fight against the epidemic. These include shrinking donor support, rising economic pressures, shrinking space for civil society, growing threats to human rights and gender equality. He also noted that HIV thrives where there is stigma and discrimination, gender based violence and inequality.

For the above challenges Chipanta recommended various best practices for adoption. Specifically,  he mentioned the rights based approach, gender responsiveness, community leadership and fully funding community interventions. He emphasized that communities should not just be called for ticking the box or under tokenism. Communities must meaningfully be engaged as engines of impact because it is them who know where gaps in the response exist. Communities build trust, innovate and reach the unreached. Communities connect people to life saving services. He therefore called on players in the national HIV response to let communities lead. This demands empowering them to shape policies and programs that affect them. Malawi needs to continue demonstrating this approach to the world.

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