Statement by UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Susan Ngongi Namondo | GGM Kilimanjaro Challenge Launch Walk

• Dr. Adam Mrisho, Executive Director of TACAIDS;
• Ms. Santina Benson, Executive Director of the CEO Roundtable;
• Mr. Ashraf Suryaningrat, Managing Director of Geita Gold Mining Limited;
• Mr. Simon Shayo, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs in Africa Anglogold Ashanti;
• Distinguished government officials;
• CEOs and private sector leaders;

• Development partners, members of the media, invited guest.

   

Habari za asubuhi? Natumai hamjachoka sana! Najua mmeamka mapema sana leo, hivyo sitaongea sana. 

And that’s all the Kiswahili you will get from me this morning!

Thank you for the invitation to join you today and congratulations to GGM and all the partners and organisers for putting together this initiative. Congratulations also to all the participants and partners here as well for the walk or run that we’ve all just completed, let’s give ourselves another round of applause!!

Beyond the immediate impact the money raised will have towards the HIV/AIDs response, this initiative represents 24 years of government, business, and communities choosing to act together to address one of the most serious public health challenges this country has faced. That is not a small thing. As the UN, we are always supportive of initiatives which are contributing to Tanzania's national HIV response, and I am pleased that we also have TACAIDs here with us as well.

Tanzania has made real progress. But as others have rightly said, the fight is not over. Behind every statistic is a person, a family, a future. Sustaining the gains of the past two decades requires exactly this kind of sustained, cross-sector commitment.

As many of you will be aware, the global development financing landscape is shifting. Official development assistance is declining. Some of the funding streams that have historically supported health programmes, including the HIV response, are contracting. We cannot afford to assume that the architecture of the past two decades will hold. What this means, in practice, is that the sustainability of gains like Tanzania's, in treatment coverage, in prevention, in reducing stigma, will increasingly depend on domestic resources, on government commitment, and on the private sector stepping up in a sustained and meaningful way.

This is why the United Nations is increasingly focused on how we can work alongside governments and the private sector to build financing models that do not depend solely on aid. We want to see initiatives that are rooted in this country, owned by this country, and increasingly funded by this country's institutions and businesses.

Tanzania's own national vision — Dira 2050 — is clear on this: the private sector is not a supporting actor in Tanzania's development story. It is a central one. The ambition Tanzania has set for itself by 2050 requires a private sector that is engaged, invested, and present, not just in economic growth, but in the social foundations that make that growth meaningful and lasting.

So, it is genuinely heartwarming to see so many private sector leaders and institutions in this room this morning, demonstrating exactly that kind of commitment. Beyond today's walk, we need to find ways to get all of us — government, private sector, and the United Nations — in the same room and ask ourselves seriously: how do we increase investment in the things that matter? How do we create jobs and economic opportunity? How do we protect the social gains that initiatives like the Kili Challenge have helped build over two decades? Those are conversations worth having, and the United Nations is ready to be part of them.

So thank you all once again, and congratulations to everyone. I believe, as Mr. Shayo said, that no single institution can win the fight against HIV/AIDS alone. That is not just a slogan, it is the operating reality we all face.

To those who will climb or cycle in July — go well. You carry with you the commitment to the Three Zeros: zero new infections, zero AIDS-related deaths, zero stigma.

Asanteni sana.