The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) held a September 1-2 consultation in Nairobi, Kenya, that brought together former African heads of state, religious leaders and non-governmental organizations to discuss HIV/AIDS in Africa in the context of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Meeting under the theme "Making Leadership Work," the participants discussed the development of a Network of African Leaders Against HIV and AIDS, which would be committed to providing necessary leadership and momentum to develop a dedicated long-term advocacy drive to mobilize an effective response to HIV and AIDS at all levels.

Speaking during the official opening of the two-day meeting, Kenya's vice president, Hon Kalonzo Musyoka, congratulated CAPA for inviting this group of leaders to the consultative dialogue. "This forum represents the perfect opportunity to tap into the leaders' wisdom and charisma and ... enlist their support in efforts to scale up the continental response to the greatest challenge of our time," he said.

The Most Rev Ian Ernest, CAPA chairman and archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean, said that CAPA was using the forum as a springboard to mobilize partnerships with key players throughout Africa and to stimulate leaders to renew forcefully their commitment to serve the continent as it seeks liberation from bad governance, poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, among other issues.

"CAPA, which expresses the voice of Anglican Christians in Africa, does not wish to be a political voice," he said. "It only calls for collaborative leadership as it wishes to express the will of God. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. No political program can claim to express this will of God."

Archbishop Ernest also emphasized that the focus on collaborative leadership and innovative approaches by CAPA and its partners "aims at converting the emerging presence of individual and collective leadership in the area of HIV and AIDS into a powerful, transformative caucus. This will certainly help us to tackle more efficiently the difficulties that we face in our fight against the AIDS pandemic and other related issues that affect the lives of our people."

The forum aimed to bring a commitment from its participants toward managing the effects of HIV/AIDS by improving access to universal treatment and care to the infected and also prevention and eradication of poverty among the people of Africa.

At the end of the two days the leaders agreed unanimously to work together with renewed commitment to overcome the HIV/AIDS pandemic and to reverse the current situation.