NEW YORK, 20 October 2008: Festus Mogae the former President of Botswana was awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership on Monday.
Announcing the 2008 Ibrahim Laureate, Kofi Annan, the Chair of the Prize Committee, said: – President Mogae’s outstanding leadership has ensured Botswana’s continued stability and prosperity in the face of an aids pandemic which threatened the future of his country and people.
Festus Mogae was President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008 and made the aids response one of the top priorities of his administration. Botswana is a small prosperous country yet with 24 per cent of adults aged 15-49 estimated to be living with hiv; the country has one of the world’s highest hiv prevalence rates. More than one third of all deaths in children under 5 are due to aids.
Botswana was the first African country to embark on a programme of rolling out free antiretrovirals to all its citizens living with hiv in need and in 2007 delivered hiv treatment to more than 90 per cent of those who need them. In addition to treatment, it has made impressive strides in preventing mother-to-child hiv transmission and caring for children orphaned by aids.
The country has also been a leader in expanding voluntary hiv testing and counselling – the offer of hiv testing has been routine in all health care settings since 2004.
Læs mere: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2008/20081020_Mogae_Leadership.asp
