Anne Makinda opens the 6th Tanzania Parliamentarians Aids Coalition in Dodoma

  

Speaker of the National Assembly Anne Makinda (Centre) along with TAPAC leaders after she opened the 6th TAPAC Conference in Dodoma yesterday 

By Nasser Kigwangallah, in Dodoma

THE speaker of the National Assembly Anne Makinda has underscored the need for concerted efforts to be made to ensure that the country attains no new infections by eradicating all forms of discrimination of people living with HIV/Aids in the country.

Makinda made the remarks when she was making her key note address to participants at the inaugural of a two day annual conference of Tanzania Parliamentarians Aids Coalition at the Saint Gasper Conference Centre in Dodoma yesterday.

She said: “We have succeeded, after twelve years of TAPAC existence in eradicating, to a greater extent, stigma and other forms of discrimination at the grass roots level.”

She said infection of new HIV from mother to child, and the number of ARVs users has dramatically shot up.

But of our success the Inter Parliamentarian Union sent a delegation to TAPAC and came to learn what we were doing to reach to that level of success.

She added that Tanzania was the only country in which its parliament was actively involved in the war against HIV/AIDS. 

This of course is an increasing gesture, thanks to all MPs, our donors both at local and international level.

We will soon send a draft to the august house so that all draconian laws which were discriminatory could be changed.

On her part, Lediana Mng’ong’o, the TAPAC Chairman said the objective of the two day seminar is to build capacity to all MPS, who are members on HIV/AIDS activities so that they could educate their voters in their respective constituencies.

“We aim at raising awareness on the level of HIV/AIDS prevalence and the way to combat it so that no more infections could be recorded in the country,” she said.

Presenting greetings from the country representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Dr Bwijo Bwijo,

HIV and AIDS Programme Specialist said relations between UNDP and the National Assembly are long and close spanning more than a decade in Tanzania.

“Globally, UNDP is committed to building better Parliaments and stronger democracies covering more than fifty countries,” he said.

He added that one of the main plan of the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP) outcomes is to enhance the ability of key institutions to effectively implement their election and political function and better fulfill their representative, legislative and oversight responsibilities.

He remarked: “Our partnership is based on a shared understanding that development depends on good governance, and good governance depends on strong parliaments.”

He said it is through our Legislatures Support Project (LSP) that we have been working closely with respective portfolio committees of the National Assembly and the House of Representatives in Zanzibar.

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