Фонд борьбы со СПИДом поддержал новую стратегию ВОЗ по развитию детей в Африке

At the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, Dr. Doris Macharia made remarks from the floor on the region's new early childhood development strategy. Day 2: Wednesday 26th August 2026 Agenda Item 9: Advancing early childhood development outcomes for children in the WHO African Region: a regional strategy (Document AFR/RC76/5) The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation welcomes this strategy and its call to integrate early childhood development into the systems that already reach children, mothers and families. For children and families affected by HIV, developmental risks are often compounded: HIV can intersect with undernutrition, caregiver illness, stress and poverty, each diminishing a caregiver’s capacity to provide the responsive, nurturing care that development depends on. Our response must address the child and caregiver together — strengthening responsive caregiving while identifying developmental risk early and linking families to appropriate support. Our experience shows this integration is feasible within existing platforms. The opportunity is to make developmental monitoring part of the continuum of care. The same provider assessing a child’s HIV treatment and viral suppression should also be able to assess whether that child is growing and developing appropriately, identify developmental risk factors, and determine whether the caregiver requires additional support. We applaud the strategy’s call for integrated, child- and family-centered primary health care, and encourage Member States to use existing platforms not only to improve child survival, but to systematically promote, monitor and support children’s development. Thank you.