“The solution to HIV & AIDS epidemic lies with over 3
billion young people”


The pre-UNGASS+5 2006 youth summit held on Monday and
Tuesday, May 29 and 30 is significant in the history
of UNGASS.

“Having the youth caucus as part of the UNGASS+5 on
HIV & AIDS is an improvement over the past” - Dr.
Thoraya Obaid – Executive Director, UNFPA.

The Youth Summit was organized by Advocates for Youth
and Global Youth Coalition on AIDS with support from
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The summit
provided the platform for almost sixty (60) youth
leaders from various countries to learn, network and
strategize on how to ensure that youth issues are
properly incorporated into the Political Declaration
that will emerge from the UNGASS.

The goal of the summit is to empower the youth leaders
attending the 2006 AIDS review to inform, educate and
influence government with regard to funding,
programmes and/ or policies for youth and HIV/AIDS.

Sessions at the youth summit were facilitated by
experts, researchers, youth leaders and adult allies.
Some of the sessions include:

- Overview of UN System – Sarah Ganter, UNFPA
- Responding to the Global AIDS Epidemic: The UN
System – Mary Otieno, UNFPA
- Review of UNGASS 2001 – Nicole Chetam, Avocates for
Youth
- The Effectiveness of interventions to achieve the
Global Goals on HIV/AIDS among young people in low and
middle-income countries – Jane Fergusson, WHO
- Unite for Chilren, Unite Against AIDS: Moving
Forward – HIV Prevention Programming with an for
adolescents – UNICEF
- Lobbying UN Missions – Zonny Woods, IWHC and Shannon
Kowalski, FCI
- Media and how to build your messages – Victor
Bernhardtz (YC) and Edford Mutuna (AFRiYAN/GYCA)

The highpoints at the youth summit were the
interactive sessions the youth leaders had with major
stakeholders working on preventing and mitigating the
impact of HIV/AIDS among young people. These include
Dr. Thoraya Obaid – Executive Director, UNFPA; Dr.
Peter Piot – Executive Director, UNAIDS; Dr. Fama Ba -
Director, African Division, UNFPA and James Wagoner -
President, Advocates for Youth.

In their various presentations and comments, they
reaffirm their conviction that young people are the
solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic facing the world.
They inspired the youth leaders to rise up to the
challenges and make the world free of HIV/AIDS.

“We need to make sure that the goal of the world is
that no young person is getting infected with HIV” –
Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS

“Whatever decision you take, you have to make sure it
is because you feel comfortable with it” – Dr. Thoraya
Obaid, UNFPA

“If comprehensive information doesn’t empower, then
ignorance won’t” – James Wagoner – Advocates for
Youth.

Participants at the Youth Summit were highly inspired
by the words of encouragement by the leaders and are
also working to present the youth position paper to
the world leaders attending the UNGASS.