Feature story

Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxemburg steps down

03 May 2013

The Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxemburg, Marie-Josée Jacobs stepped down this week after close to four years in the position and after eighteen years as Minister for Family Affairs and social inclusion. During that time, the collaboration between Luxemburg and UNAIDS was considerably strengthened especially regarding issues such as the protection of human rights in the context of HIV, addressing the needs and rights of women and supporting national strategic planning to advance AIDS programmes in countries.

Ms Jacobs demonstrated her personal engagement at numerous high-level UN fora and meetings on AIDS and recognized the importance of UNAIDS’ strategic leadership. In 2012, Luxembourg and UNAIDS signed a memorandum of understanding to foster joint action and bolster the global response to HIV.

Since the creation of UNAIDS, Luxembourg has been one of the Joint Programme’s most important partners. Among UNAIDS’ top 10 donors, the Grand-Duchy is providing regular funding for activities essential to an effective response to HIV, in particular addressing gender equality and the needs of women and girls, stopping new HIV infections among children and strengthening national AIDS responses at country level.

Quotes

Ms Jacobs has shown strong commitment to the global AIDS response and in particularly towards the elimination of stigma and discrimination and the protection of the most vulnerable groups. UNAIDS looks forward to continuing this partnership with Luxemburg towards our shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé

Luxembourg appreciates the added-value of UNAIDS in terms of its global political guidance and its contribution to broader social transformations. These are the changes required to further build on the successes of the MDGs while moving into the Post-2015 development framework.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Marie-Josée Jacobs