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Opening remarks by UNDP Country Director, Mr Walid Badawi

Programme Director, Dr. Gomolemo Moshoeu, Honorobale Justices, UNAIDS, Ladies and gentlmen, All Protocols observed

1.0             On behalf of the UNDP South Africa Country Office, let me welcome you all to this Judicial Leadership training.

2.0             I hope that you have travelled comfortably and wish that you have a fruitful and successful two and a-half days of deliberations.

3.0             Let me take this opportunity to first of all thank Dr. Gomolemo Moshoeu (fondly known by us as Dr. G), for reaching out to UNDP to partner with SAJEI in offering this Judicial leadership training, which is based on the UNDP transformational leadership model. This shows her commitment in sourcing relevant training opportunities for the judiciary from far and wide.

4.0             This training on transformational leadership comes at a time when the country, the continent and indeed the world is calling out for great leaders, conscious leaders who selflessly strive to improve the lives of their people sustainably, ethical and principled leaders who serve the greater good, transformational leaders who will resolve the challenges we face today and create a better world for all.

5.0             It is no coincidence therefore, that UNDP’s own journey with transformational leadership began right her in South Africa, the birthplace of one of the world’s greatest modern day transformational leaders, Nelson Mandela, in 2001. I together with our lead facilitator today, Dr. Khadija Moalla, had the privilege of being part of this journey from its  incpetion. I am sure over the next 2 days you will hear much more about the power of transformational leadership and the profound impact this has had on creating lasting development outcomes across a wide range of development issues in all continents of the world. Indeed it is our view, that the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will depend in large measure on the successful application of transformative methodologies across all our societies.

6.0             The goal of this workshop is therefore to allow you the opportunity to embark with us on this transformational journey.  Over the next couple of days we hope to provide you with tools that can allow you to shape breakthrough initiatives that will create transformational change and make a difference within the judiciary and the community at large.

7.0             To help give meaning and a measure of concretization to these leadership approaches, we will apply these concepts in the context of our response to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Some examples and exercises will therefore espouse transformational leadership through the HIV lens. Although South Africa has made great strides in responding to the HIV epidemic, some challenges still remain, especially in the areas of human rights, stigma and discrimination, and the extent to which it disproportionately affects certain groups of people.

8.0             The Thembisa model estimates of 2016 show that South Africa has an estimated 7.1 million people living with HIV (PLHIV). A further analysis in the National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (2017–2022) shows that adolescent girls and young women as well as other key and vulnerable populations remain most heavily affected by the epidemic. Young women (aged between 15 and 24 years) have the highest HIV incidence of any age or sex cohort. HIV prevalence rates among other vulnerable populations are also alarming. Of the approximately 150,000 female sex workers, estimates of HIV prevalence rates range from 48% to 72%, compared to 14.4% among adult women in the general population. There is a 28% HIV prevalence rate among the 1.2 million men who have sex with men (MSM), a 14% prevalence rate among the 67,000 people[1] who inject drugs (PWID), 23% of prison inmates and 17% of people with disabilities.

9.0             People living with or affected by HIV encounter stigma, discrimination and violations of their rights, and thus increases the impact of HIV on their lives and creates barriers to access to services and support. In South Africa, the People Living with HIV Stigma Index survey found that 35.5% of people living with HIV and 36.3% with TB reported experiencing externalized stigma, and 43% and 27% respectively experienced internalized stigma. This means that the protection of human rights is essential to safeguard human dignity in the context of HIV, protect affected persons from discrimination, as well as promote access to HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support services. It is our belief that the judiciary can play a crucial role in this through its interpretation and implementation of national Constitutions, legislation, international and regional human rights treaties. The UNDP country office is now working in partnership with the South African National AIDS Council to implement goal 5 of the NSP which aims to ground the response in human rights principles and approaches. We are pleased that our colleagues, Ms. Rentia Agenbag and Ms. Ayanda Ngubo from SANAC’s Government and Civil Society support division, will be with us over the next few days and will provide more detail on the human rights aspects of the NSP and will engage in the deliberations of this workshop.

10.0         We are also pleased to have with us Ms. Deena Patel,  Programme Manager, in  UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Practice, who will also be providing an overview of some of UNDP’s work with the Africa Regional Judges’ Forum on HIV and the Law later today.

11.0         My other task today is to introduce our main facilitator for this training – Dr. Khadija Moalla who will be assisted by other facilitators from SAJEI.

12.0         As I mentioned earlier, I have known Khadija since 2001 when we embarked on this transformational leadership journey together. We have worked from 2003 on a regional HIV/AIDS programme in the Arab world to “break the silence” and shatter some of the most entrenched taboos surrounding the epidemic in the region. Armed with the power of transformational leadership we have done just that and I am sure you will hear a lot about many of the great achievements under this programme, but also elsewhere from around the world.  Over the past 17 years, I have been inspired and energized by her passion and commitment and I hope that you will all be equally inspired to action.

13.0         I hope the next few days of this training will be participatory, interactive and reflective and will culminate in the development of breakthrough initiatives in each of your domains. The UNDP Country Office stands ready to support SAJEI in following up on these initiatives in order to ensure that this transformational training brings about concrete change and is sustainable. In this connection, I want to acknowledge my colleague Ms. Nelly Mwaka, who has worked tirelessly together with SAJEI to make this workshop a reality.

14.0         Once again, I welcome you and hope that you have a successful workshop.

15.0         Thank you