The picture of the week

2024 Nigeria HIV Prevention Conference, Abuja, Nigeria

Elizabeth Talatu Williams - Sustainable Impact and Development Initiative, Lagos, Nigeria

2024-08-14

It was such a relieving yet fulfilling experience at the 2024 Nigeria HIV Prevention Conference which took place last week in Abuja.

I have served on several conference planning committees but this one was different. It was different because we were finally walking the talk. There has been such a huge cry for integration of HIV into other sectors and the push for a multi-sectoral approach.

This was very evident in the composition of the technical committee for the youth pre-conference where I served as the co-chair alongside amazing young changemakers in the health space and not just HIV alone.

More importantly, there was a huge influx of new faces and champions working to end HIV, advance access to family planning and promote uptake of sexual reproductive health services in Nigeria.

This was the first conference with many more to come.

It will only take a MULTI-SECTORAL approach to end AIDS in Nigeria and this reechoed all through the conference.