Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development (which the Alliance is a member of), Ms Featherstone said "I have come here today to emphasise the UK's continued commitment to HIV. I want to make that very, very clear”.
She also underlined the importance of the relationship between DFID and the Consortium stating that, “It is incredibly valuable for DFID to work with and meet the Consortium as a collective. We value the strong, constructive, open and honest relationship we have.”
Ms Featherstone went on to speak about the UK government’s commitment to ending discrimination on the basis of sexuality, “The world must work harder to empower these groups whose life circumstances place them under increased risk of HIV”. She acknowledged the work that the Alliance has done on the issue, stating that “DFID supports the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s ‘What’s Preventing Prevention?’ campaign for the protection of LGBT rights.” You can read more about the campaign here.
The Alliance was represented at the meeting by Enrique Restoy, manager of the ‘What’s Preventing Prevention?’ campaign. He spoke about the progress made in the epidemic and the opportunities that lie ahead. The meeting was chaired by Mike Podmore, who is the Alliance’s Policy Manager and also chair of the Consortium.
Useful links
You can read more about the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development’s AGM on their website.
The Alliance was one of the Consortium members to input into their policy brief, Positive Gains, which focuses on how we can learn from the response to HIV and AIDS to galvanize our approach to global health. Find out more here.