A team of six Basotho representing the National AIDS Commission; Ministry of Health & Social Welfare (Health Planning & Statistics Unit); Ministry of Public Service; Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Correctional Services; Ministry of Local Government and the UNDP participated in a 5 day seminar organised by the UNDP Regional Service Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa (RSCESA) held in Durban, South Africa from 25 – 29 June 2007 for development practitioners and planners from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

The seminar was organised with the immediate objective of providing a forum & space to complete the Country Assessments (Issues Paper) & Country Action Plans on HIV & MDG; bearing in mind that countries have been preparing their own MDG & Universal Access plans with broad consultations following their being signatories to many protocols on the MDGs and HIV & AIDS (e.g. UNGASS, Abuja and Brazzaville Declarations etc.). It is in this regard, that HIV and AIDS has been identified as one key challenge which affects countries’ abilities to attain their MDG targets, hence the need to plan in accordance with the impact of HIV & AIDS on several actors and parts of societies; and to ensure that the implications of HIV & AIDS are taken into account in MDG planning.

On behalf of the RSC-ESA Director, Dr. Roland Msiska, Dr. Lemma Merid welcomed participants to the workshop which was intended to take them beyond just talking and planning but towards developing country action plans that would help in attaining the MDG targets.

The highly interactive seminar, facilitated by Dr. Lemma Merid and colleagues from the Regional Service Centre, focused on a number of key issues including the current state of MDGs in the region, including the base-line, targets and target setting. The roles of Non-State actors (CSO, Parliament, Media, Private Sector) and of People living with HIV & AIDS in the GIEPA (Greater Involvement & Empowerment of People living with HIV & AIDS) context, in MDG Planning were discussed at length to foster participation, using various methodologies like Community Conversations as a planning tool to ensure the localization of MDGs.

All these discussions would not have been beneficial if participants were not given an opportunity to discuss the macroeconomic implications of MDGs, a session delivered with great confidence and relevance by Mr. Udo Etukudo; as well as processes to make MDGs HIV & AIDS and Gender responsive, emphasizing the nexus between HIV, Gender & MDGs and the need for both Qualitative and Quantitative monitoring and evaluation of MDGs.


“Until the poor are part of production processes of our economies, we shall not achieve our poverty reduction strategies’ targets” – Udo Etukudo

The seminar was a real eye-opener for the participants, as the sessions were delivered with professionalism and, being highly participatory, encouraged sharing of country experiences as well as providing competences on the importance of HIV and AIDS in MDG based planning.

Participants left the training convinced of the urgent need to focus on HIV & AIDS and Gender mainstreaming mainly because; i) HIV & AIDS has been the single most fundamental development challenge of the past three decades; ii) women’s vulnerability to HIV & AIDS is exacerbated by their low social and economic status as well as dependence on men; iii) the adverse implications of HIV & AIDS on women go beyond the purely health or economic dimension into the realms of human rights; and iv) the attainment of all MDGs depends on progress in turning around the HIV & AIDS epidemic.

This has led to the preparation of the country issues paper on Mainstreaming HIV & AIDS and Gender into Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through mainstreaming HIV & AIDS and Gender into sectoral planning processes.


Puleng R. Letsie
HIV & AIDS Programme Officer
UNDP Lesotho