The UNITE Global Parliamentarians Network to End Infectious Diseases and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) signed a memorandum of understanding this week that their joint work describes for 2022. With the progress of the international pandemic treaty still stalling among several countries, it is more important than ever that governments and civil society organizations pursuing change engage in combating communicable diseases and preparing to prevent and respond to new pandemics.

In the document that UNITE and AHF signed with the Portuguese Parliament on March 24, they pledge to “actively work and advocate to fight infectious diseases as a global health threat; to improve preparedness for pandemics and promote the negotiation of a new tool to anticipate, prevent and respond to a pandemic.”

In a joint statement, the leaders of both organizations agree that they are "committed to strengthening the relationship to ensure the exchange of evidence-based knowledge through information sharing on communicable diseases, global health, legislative processes and policy making," the statement said. President of UNITE, Ricardo Baptista Leite, Member of the Portuguese Parliament. “UNITE has the right tools to achieve the necessary political impact and the network's MPs are committed to achieving that.”

“To be as effective as possible politically and achieve as much as possible, we need MPs, because they speak for the people,” said Michael Weinstein, the chairman of the AHF. “We are honored to begin working with UNITE on the critical goals of global pandemic preparedness and the control and eradication of infectious diseases.”

The cooperation between UNITE and AHF already started in 2017, when the network was founded. Since then, the AHF has supported UNITE's work in several areas of intervention. This year it is possible to build on this even further through talks on a new global health plan and the recently launched International Forum on Global Health – a working group led by UNITE and the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund .

UNITE is a global network of MPs committed to change and impact politics to eliminate communicable diseases as a threat to global health by 2030. UNITE has more than 200 members in more than 70 countries around the world and operates in ten areas, called chapters, under the direction of its board of directors.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 1.6 million clients in 45 countries worldwide: in the US, Africa, Latin America/the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific region and Europe. More information about the AHF can be found on our website: www.aidshealth.org , on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aidshealth and on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

This announcement is officially valid in the original source language. Translations are only intended as a reading aid and should be compared with the text in the source language, which is the only legally valid one.

Contacts
CONTACT PERSON FOR THE MEDIA UNITE:
Lucas Chambel , Head of Strategic Partnerships and Communications, UNITE
lucas.chambel@unitenetwork.org

US MEDIA CONTACT:
Denys Nazarov , Director of Global Policy & Communications, AHF
+1 323.308.1829
denys.nazarov@ahf.org

Terri Ford, Chief of Global Advocacy &
Policy, AHF
+1 323.308.1820terri.ford@ahf.org

 

Source:businesswire.com

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