Dakar, Senegal – In line with the worldwide goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, government officials from ECOWAS member states committed to providing comprehensive health services for key populations in West Africa. They finalized a declaration of their commitment at an April 10, 2015, meeting hosted by the Government of Senegal and organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the West Africa Health Organization.

“Experts recognize that controlling the epidemic in West Africa will require focus on populations that are under-served and at higher risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV, which means key populations as shown by data,” noted USAID/West Africa Mission Director Alex Deprez. “We now know that, in countries (like India) where these key populations have been prioritized, HIV prevalence in both the general and key populations has remained low with significant gains in reducing HIV nationally.”

HIV prevalence among all reproductive-age adults in West Africa has declined significantly over the past 15 years with rates below 4 percent in all 15 ECOWAS countries, hovering around 1 percent in most.  Although clear gains have been made, key populations in the region carry a disproportionate burden of HIV. 

Today’s meeting brought together Ministers of Health, Justice Ministries staff, directors of national police forces, technical experts, donors and representatives of civil society organizations to review the HIV epidemic in the sub-region and its disproportionate impact on key populations.  Acknowledging that programs and policies must emphasize access to health services for those populations in order to reduce the burden and transmission of HIV in West Africa, official representatives of the ECOWAS member states signed the decree declaring their support for key population programming as an essential pillar of their national HIV strategies in order to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.