There is no aspect of life that has not directly or indirectly been negatively influenced by the AIDS epidemic. AIDS has become the major cause of illness and death among the young and middle aged adults, depriving households and society of a critical human resource base and thereby reversing the social and economic gains made since independence.

Today all Zimbabweans are affected by HIV and AIDS. Every family has lost members or takes care of infected family members, neighbours and friends. Everybody knows the major ways of transmission of HIV, but frequently we are still not talking entirely openly and freely about it. This strategy shall bring Zimbabweans closer to addressing the major way of HIV transmission in this country. It is assumed that between 80 and 90% of infections are due to sexual transmission. Hence, promoting the adoption of safe sexual behaviours remains at the heart of HIV prevention in Zimbabwe.

This series is principally concerned with current policy issues of importance to developing countries but also covers those relevant to countries in transition. The focus is upon policies which affect the management of natural resources in support of sustainable livelilhoods. Much of the series will be devoted to concerns affecting the livelihoods of poor people in rural areas, recognizing the linkages with non-natural resource-based livelihoods. It will also include the interests of the urban poor, where these are linked to the use of natural resources as part of livelihood strategies.

By way of introduction, I would just give you an overview of what my government is doing in terms of the AIDS problem. We have put into place a number of responses to deal with HIV and AIDS and this include the NECP in the Ministry of Health's National AIDS Co-ordinating programme. We are also busy promoting home-based care of patients, which is going on at both governmental and NGO level. However, here we will only addres the issue of government responses to the orphan generation.

The first AIDS case in Zimbabwe was identified in 1985. HIV sentinel surveillance was initiated in 1991. In 2000, Zimbabwe undertook the first fully implemented ANC survey since 1997. It found that 35 percent of women attending ANCs were infected with HIV. The 2001 ANC findings appeared to indicate that ANC prevalence had fallen to 29.5 percent. In August 2003, Zimbabwe released a report presenting new national HIV/AIDS prevalence data, indicating that HIV prevalence in ANC surveys peaked in 2000 at 34 percent, fell in 2001 to 30 percent, and decreased further in 2002 to 25.7 percent. Using these figures, 24.9 percent of Zimbabwean adults are HIV-positive. Several Zimbabwean HIV/AIDS experts stated that the new figures did not represent a real decline in HIV prevalence, but rather a correction of flawed data from previous surveys.