WELCOME REMARKS FROM PETER MWARONGO, CHAIRMAN, AFRICOMNET BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Welcome to AfriComNet’s three day Forum for Change or as we are calling it, a practicum with the theme, ‘HIV and AIDS, Alcohol and Gender: A Strategic Communication Perspective’.

AfriComNet, which was launched in 2001, is a network of health and development communication practitioners who work in Africa.

To-date, we have a membership of over 700 people from 42 countries. The Membership is free, so if you are not yet a member of AfriComNet, please visit our website or complete the registration forms attached to the brochures included in the conference package.

Our mission is to strengthen capacity in and commitment to strategic communication for health and development in Africa.

This practicum is one effort to place priority social factors that influence HIV prevention, care and treatment on the national and regional agendas as well as to identify strategies and form action plans to integrate into community outreach, advocacy, media, and client education and counseling programmes. The recommendations and declaration from this practicum will be disseminated through the network website and CD ROM resource kit to inform HIV and AIDS programming in the region.

AfriComNet is also building capacity through working with universities and other training institutions in Africa to design and offer training in strategic communication. This year in May 2007, the network also held its annual award ceremony for excellence in HIV and AIDS communication in Africa to recognize communication interventions that can be disseminated for replication and scaling in the region.

The AfriComNet practicum/forum for change will be an annual event. So, please keep your eyes and ears open to secure sponsorship for the next practicum to address emerging and priority areas in health and development, in the region.

We would like to thank the United States Agency for International Development and the US President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief as well as UNAIDS for sponsoring this year’s practicum. AfriComNet is looking for sponsors for other forums for change in emerging and priority areas in health and development for next year and other years to come. If any of you are interested, please let us know.

Thank you to all of you for joining us in this exciting forum to collectively make recommendations to address social factors and that will positively influence scaling up of innovative practices for holistic HIV and AIDS programming.