The Chinese news agency, Xinhua and UNAIDS have renewed their partnership for joint efforts on HIV through a two-year extension of the Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement was signed during a meeting between UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé and Xinhua’s President Li Congjun at the news agency’s headquarters in Beijing, China on Thursday 28 February.
Xinhua’s President Li reiterated the importance of responding to the AIDS epidemic and Xinhua’s commitment to raising public awareness. He assured Xinhua’s widespread support of the #ZeroDiscrimination campaign and his commitment to the expansion of the Xinhua-UNAIDS collaboration towards impact and results.
Mr Sidibé thanked Mr Li and Xinhua for the important support of the new agency and urged that the successful collaboration with Xinhua be documented and shared as an example of solid media partnership on HIV.
The Xinhua-UNAIDS Memorandum of Understanding was first signed in September 2011 where they agreed to leverage each organization’s skills to reach universal access goals towards HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Efforts carried out during the past years include a global media campaign to promote public awareness of HIV and support for World AIDS Day activities such as the showcasing of the World AIDS Day theme of “Getting to Zero” on a giant electronic screen in Times Square, New York in 2011.
"I truly admire the work UNAIDS has done over so many years in the response to HIV and the achievements UNAIDS has made. As we sign this MoU today, it will be a new starting point for our future cooperation. I want to expand our cooperation and to do things which achieve even greater impact around the world."
President of Xinhua News Agency, Li Congjun
"Xinhua’s partnership has helped greatly to put the vision of three zeros—zero discrimination, zero new infections, zero deaths— out to the world. I’m delighted with the extension of our partnership. This is helping to keep HIV at the forefront of people’s minds and actions."
Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director
