First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo going through a document during the committee meeting
First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has represented the West African block on the Steering Committee meeting of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) meeting underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Steering Committee meeting, attended by two representatives from each of the five regions, comprising of the northern, southern, western, eastern and central parts of Africa, had Ghana and Burkina Faso representing the West African Region.
Mrs Akufo-Addo had to sit in for the region as her Burkinabe counterpart, Sika Bella Kabore, was absent from the Committee Session held on Saturday.
Other first ladies who participated in the Steering Committee meeting chaired by Mrs Roman Tesfaye, First Lady of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, who doubles as the Chairperson of OAFLA, were Mrs Margaret Gakuo Kenyatta, the Kenyan First Lady and Mrs Hinda Deby Itno, the Chadian First Lady.
Ghana was elected onto the Steering Committee of the OAFLA for a two-year term in July 2017 during the maiden meeting of Mrs Akufo-Addo as the first lady of Ghana.
Mrs Akufo-Addo was also seen warmly fraternising with her other counterparts on the side-lines of the meetings, amidst a number of photo sessions.
During her maiden attendance last year, Mrs Akufo-Addo was given the role of chairing the Steering Committee meeting and also elected in the closed door session as a member of the Steering Committee to serve a two-year term.
The current session of OAFLA started on January 27 and will end the 30th, alongside the General Assembly of the African Union (AU).
The Steering Committee meeting forms a crucial part of the two-day ongoing 20th Ordinary General Assembly of OAFLA that enabled the committee members to discuss the recommendations of the technical advisers of the various member countries to review a designed communiqué that would be issued at the close of the session, and also to adopt the General Assembly’s agenda.
The session was held on the margins of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State hosted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The OAFLA General Assembly, held twice every year, allows the first ladies to brief each other about what they have been doing to sustain and win the fight against HIV and AIDS in their respective countries as well as for the OAFLA Secretariat to brief members on what it had done and how they had supported country offices to improve upon their HIV response.
The 20th session was the theme: ‘Transforming Africa Through Prioritising Children, Adolescents & Mothers In The Fight Against HIV’.
Mrs Akufo-Addo later joined President Akufo-Addo in the AU General Assembly meeting which is being attended by the heads of state and their spouses, ministers of state and government officials earlier Sunday afternoon.
The main OAFLA General Assembly Open Session was held yesterday, Monday, January 29, where Mrs Akufo-Addo shared with her counterparts how she had personally contributed to the fight against HIV and AIDS, especially towards the elimination of mother-to-child transmission.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri