Australian High Commission
Papua New Guinea

090717 MR Aust HIV Ambassador visit

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, 17 July 2009

For Immediate Release

Australia’s Ambassador for HIV to visit Papua New Guinea

Australia’s Ambassador for HIV, Murray Proctor, will be visiting Papua New Guinea from the 21 to the 22 of this month to see for himself work being done in the HIV and AIDS response, in particular in the Western Highlands Province.

This will be Mr Proctor’s first visit to the Province.

In anticipation of the visit, Mr Proctor said he was looking forward to meeting with a number of partners who play a major role in delivering health and HIV services in the Province.

“HIV and AIDS is one of the four priority areas of Australia’s development assistance to PNG. I am aware that Western Highland Province has a very high prevalence of HIV infection and is one province where a significant amount of work is being done. This visit is to reaffirm our support to their efforts to enable people to have access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,” Mr Proctor said.

Mr Proctor’s role as Ambassador for HIV is to encourage political, business and community leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to provide the direction and support needed to halt the spread of HIV and AIDS, and reduce its impact on development.

“Australia has committed about $178 million over five years to supporting PNG’s response to HIV and AIDS, so it’s very important for me to meet with the Provincial Administration of Western Highlands Province, and faith-based and civil society organisations who do a lot of the grass-roots work in this response. It’s at that level that we can measure our effectiveness and see where and how, together, we can take our efforts forward,” he said.