Older persons meet parliament over HIV/AIDS Issues

By Ivan

This is to bring to your attention that last week, the National HIV Prevention Group for Older persons met with the Parliamentary Committee on HIV&AIDS and related matters on 4^th July 2012. The meeting took place in room 102B, North Wing, First floor, Parliamentary building.

The aim of the group was to share with the committee issues of older persons as articulated in the policy brief and also hand over a statement  detailing the proposed clause on older persons in the National HIV Prevention and Control Bill 2010 which is attached here for your information.

The MPs agreed with the group that issues of older persons were missing in the HIV policy documents, porgrammes and strategies. Dr. Elioda tesitified that older persons were not consulted during development of HIV policies, programmes and strategies.

The MPs also noted that may be older persons are forgotten due to the demographics in the country but still they assured the group that if we are emphasizing a rights based approach to HIV response then every section of the population should be targted and involved.

WAY FORWARD

The Chair of the committee requested members to give a way forward and below are their suggestions

 Committee will edit the statement presented to them by the group to see that issues of older persons are included in the HIV bill.

The Chair to contact Minister of Health on these issues and give feedback to the committee and the advocacy group.

The committee will engage UAC, MOH and other government agencies on issues of older persons.

The committee will find out from ministry of Gender whether they speak about HIV when awarding the senior citizen grant.

The Chair was tasked to consult PEPFAR on issues of HIV and older persons.

 The advocacy group was advised to share these issues with UAC and MOH.

The advocacy group was asked to keep on updating the committee on issues of older persons in Uganda.

The advocacy group should meet other related committees such as committee on Equal opportunities, budget, legal and parliamentary Affairs, Agriculture, Animal industry and fisheries, Gender, Labour and Social Development.

 UNASO should use its district networks to advocate for issues of older persons at a decentralized level.

In conclusion, Hon. Rosemary- the chair of the committee, thanked the group for sharing issues of older persons in Uganda. she further asked the group to keep in touch and updating the committee. She noted that the committee will give feedback to the group on some of the recommendations suggested in the near future.