OAFLA COMMUNIQUE

Launch of United Continental All-In Adolescent Campaign

Accra, Ghana
We, the African First Ladies, as members of the Organization of African First
Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) who attended the launch of the United
Continental All-In Adolescent Campaign in Accra, Ghana
Recognise that:
AIDS has become the leading cause of death for adolescents in Africa and the
second leading cause of death among adolescents globally, knowing that just one
in four children and adolescents under the age of 15 has access to life-saving
antiretroviral treatment and deaths are declining in all age groups, except among
1019 year olds.
New HIV infections among adolescents are not declining as quickly as among
other age groups and adolescent girls, particularly, in sub-Saharan Africa, are
most affected.
Globally, two thirds of all new infections among adolescents were among
adolescent girls, most of who became infected at least 10 years ago - at a time
when antiretroviral medicines that can greatly reduce the possibility of HIV
transmission were not available.
Commit to:
The All-In campaign as a platform for action to increase the meaningful
participation of adolescents in decision-making processes and strengthen youth
led social movements.

Commit to Stop new HIV infections among young women and adolescent girls and
ensure AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death among adolescents by
Championing the All-In Initiative in our respective countries.
Identify opportunities to link adolescent HIV strategies into existing adolescent
health and development programme; engage national leaders to coordinate,
support and lead assessments of existing programmes and expand partnerships
for innovation between the public and private sectors.
Focus on four key action areas of engaging, mobilising and empowering
adolescents as leaders and actors of social change; improving data collection to
better inform programming; encouraging innovative approaches to reach
adolescents with essential HIV services adapted to their needs; and placing
adolescent HIV firmly on political agendas to spur concrete action and mobilize
resources.
To invest in the health and education of women and adolescents and protect their
rights in line with the aspirations strongly expressed in the OAFLA Addis Ababa
Declaration on the Post 2015 Development Goals adopted by the OAFLA General
Assembly in January 2014.
We call on:
1.The African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB),
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) the
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), other UN agencies, the International
Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and development partners to actively
support continental initiatives on strengthening adolescent reproductive health
systems, by providing continued technical and financial support and resources,
and by facilitating innovative partnerships.
2. Our governments and national institutions to ensure law enforcement and the
domestication of international and regional instruments and legal frameworks
that protect women and young people and their Sexual Reproductive Health and
Rights (SRHR).

3. The national, regional and continental coordinated efforts towards the

accelerated elimination of all forms of gender-based violence and harmful
practices,
We reaffirm our commitment:
To stop new HIV infections among children and keep their mothers alive, by
championing the end of early marriage and adolescent pregnancy, improving
access to services that eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and
doubling access to treatment including scaling-up pediatric treatment.
We know that investment in the health of all adolescents, including their sexual
and reproductive health which safeguards their future is an important element in
the drive towards harnessing the demographic dividend in Africa.
Continue to advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women and
adolescent girls to exercise their reproductive rights including access to safe,
voluntary family planning services and ensure access to sexual and reproductive
health information and services in line with regional and global instruments.
Accelerate continued advocacy for the introduction of comprehensive sexual and
reproductive health education that includes modules on gender and power
dynamics and is consistent with the evolving capacities of young people, in order
to build the skills of adolescent girls to make informed decisions about their own
lives, and to prevent sexual abuse, early sexual debut, unintended pregnancies
and sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and Human
Papillomavirus (HPV) empowering them as agents for change and contributors to
the collective aspirations for a transformative sustainable development of the
continent.
OAFLA Member States
February 11, 2016