![Dr.-Victor-Asare-Bampoe-Deputy-Minister-for-Health-620x330[1]](https://voicefmonline.com/vfm/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Dr.-Victor-Asare-Bampoe-Deputy-Minister-for-Health-620x3301.jpg)
Deputy Minister of Health, Victor Bampoe, is participating in a high level meeting in Geneva Switzerland, which is discussing the role men must play in fast-tracking an end to the AIDS epidemic.
The UNAIDS Country Director, Mr Girmay Haile, is also in attendance at the meeting, which commenced on December 10, 2015 at the UNAIDS Head Quarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The meeting will involve high level consultation on the rights, roles and responsibilities of men in fast-tracking the end of AIDS.
The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibe, is of the view that “when we engage men for their own health and to change harmful gender norms, we not only improve men’s health, but that of their female counterparts.”
The key objectives of the meeting are to build consensus on what the evidence is saying about men and adolescent boys in the HIV response and the relationship to women’s vulnerability, and to agree on the core elements required to fast-track the HIV response among men and adolescent boys, while continuing to increase commitments to women and girls. UNAIDS acknowledges that if the Fast-Track approach to end the AIDS epidemic is to succeed, the roles and responsibilities as well as rights of men in the AIDS response, needs to be placed firmly on the global agenda. Ministers of Health from Malawi and Botswana, as well as senior government representatives from 10 countries across all regions as well as scientists, researchers, programme managers, donors and civil society members and activists, are also in attendance.
