The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) and ITPC West Africa launched the Regional Community Treatment Observatory in West Africa earlier this month, February 8, 2017. The event took place in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, with representatives from all 11 countries to be covered by the new program. See highlights and quotes from key speakers below.

Need for Community Empowerment Emphasized

“Civil society is the voice that warns and raises awareness of the real problems of people living with HIV. Everything they’ve done to access treatment, everything they continue to do to ensure there is no stock-out in the medication has to be supported.” – Professor Serges Eholie, Head of Department of Infectious and Tropical Disease Hygiene.
“It is important that civil society organizations continue to be involved at all levels. This initiative will contribute to the improvement of this.” – Representative of Dr. Raymonde Coffie, Cote d’Ivoire Minister of Health and Public Hygiene.

Project Empowers Communities to Hold Decision Makers to Account

“The project will provide more comprehensive data to inform decision-makers. It aims at the production of information, exchange and research in order to provide factual elements for making relevant decisions, including for key populations.” – Astou Diop, Chair of ITPC West Africa Board
“This project is an excellent alert system.” – Dr. Djeneba Ouattara, Chair of the Country Coordinating Mechanism, Cote d’Ivoire.
“The Regional Community Treatment Observatory will build an evidence base to show exactly who is being left behind, why they are being left behind, and where in the health system we are failing to deliver quality treatment and service to those who need it. Communities in partnership with key stakeholders will use this information for targeted advocacy, and to propose solutions.” – Solange Baptiste, ITPC Executive Director.

Film Introduces Community Treatment Observatory Project

ITPC introduced the project and it’s goals over the next three years in a short-film which was shown for the first time at the launch event.

Need to Integrate Management of HIV in Health and Community Systems

“The fact is we need to change our approach. We need to integrate and implement the management of HIV/AIDS within the health systems and the community systems so that a person living with HIV has access to treatment. If we manage to do this I think by 2020 we will have taken a big step forward and 50% more people will have access to treatment.” – Alain Manouan, Community Treatment Monitoring Project Director.
The launch event was filmed live, and a full recording (in French) is available on our Facebook page.
Ahead of the launch, ITPC and country partners met to finalize project plans. You can see some highlights and photos from that meeting here.
Find the latest updates on the Regional Community Treatment Observatory on www.itpcglobal.org and via @ITPCglobal #TxAccessWatch