It is my privilege to open what I am sure will be three days of rich discourse towards charting the way forward on the next phase of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Let me start by welcoming you to Tanzania. Karibuni sana. The PEPFAR Tanzania Team welcomes this opportunity to host the first annual track one partners meeting to take place outside the United States. Tanzania is the only country to have agreements with all major Track One partners.

Based on PEPFAR’s great success, the United States Government has committed an additional $48 billion over the next 5 years to reinforce our international HIV/AIDS relief efforts.

In Tanzania, the success of this unparalleled commitment to fight HIV/AIDS is hinged on bilateral partnership and interagency collaboration.

The strong partnership forged between the governments of the United States and Tanzania reinforces the long-term sustainability of program goals and the development of a stronger public health system. Through our collaborative efforts, this country has witnessed substantial improvements to the health sector, which extend beyond HIV/AIDS relief.

PEPFAR’s support of the development of the National Health Laboratory’s Quality Assurance and Training Center is one example of how our partnership with the Ministry of Health benefits Tanzania’s health system. Similar successes are occurring throughout Tanzania through your capacity building activities at the regional and district levels.

With support from our care and treatment programs, the National Laboratory is not only better able to combat HIV/AIDS but has developed the capacity to combat global emergencies and infectious disease outbreaks. The National Laboratory has provided diagnostic results for outbreak investigations that range from cholera to H1N1. At the same time, with state-of-the-art testing machines and sophisticated information systems, the laboratory serves as a critical site for providing advanced training to public health laboratory workers. This training furthers our efforts to strengthen the next generation of public health practitioners.

Strengthening the national laboratory system has been fundamental in the success of our rapid scale-up of clinical services, because diagnosis, disease staging, and therapeutic monitoring are all vital elements of quality ART services.

Scale-up of ART services has meant a concerted focus on the development of lower-level infrastructure, working with regional and local governments to build care and treatment facilities on the premises of district hospitals, health clinics, and dispensaries. With our Tanzanian partners, we have built over 85 clinics across the country, thus improving access to quality care. (Refer to pictures)

With the assistance from many of the institutions represented here today, more Tanzanians are benefiting from HIV counseling and testing, services to prevent HIV transmission to babies, early testing services for infants and children, and care for patients at home. In addition to these comprehensive services, we envision the integration of evidence-based positive prevention intervention outreach to include prevention counseling for people receiving ART services, and the promotion of condom usage among people living with HIV.

Buttressing all of these achievements are the integrated efforts of the five participating USG agencies: the Department of State, United States Agency for International Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Walter Reed Institute of Army Research, and the Peace Corps. Employing the “One USG” strategy, the collaboration between the five agencies making up the PEPFAR Tanzania team draws on the strengths of each agency and promotes efficiency in program implementation.

The “One USG” strategy is also essential to our outreach to the Tanzanian general public. By eliminating the impersonal bureaucratic branding of agency specific logos, the tagline “From the American People” reinforces the generosity and good will of Americans. The tagline is prominently displayed at all US Embassy public events and on communication materials for both PEPFAR and non-PEPFAR initiatives.

By celebrating our successes, for example through inaugural ceremonies for care and treatment clinics and laboratories, we have achieved greater recognition by Tanzanians of the support of the American people.

We support the notion of joint recognition. These pictures demonstrate successful events that promote our mutual programs.

Among my responsibilities as Chief of Mission is ensuring that the PEPFAR Team engages the host government to ensure that the program is responsive to Tanzania’s needs, as well as to maintain programs that are cost-effective and integrated to support mutual accountability for results.

Today, the PEPFAR team looks forward to assessing our joint achievements, what lessons we can take from our experiences, and how we can most effectively build on that foundation to create a transitional plan for the next phase of PEPFAR.

Our Partnership Framework will provide a five year joint strategic framework for cooperation between the U.S. Government, the host government, the track one stakeholders, and other partners to combat HIV/AIDS through service delivery, policy reform, and coordinated financial commitments.

Thank you for the opportunity to join you today, and for your longstanding commitment in this global fight against HIV/AIDS.