The ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific will be held at Bali in Indonesia from August 9 to 13, 2009. A high powered Indian delegation led by the minister of state for health & family welfare Dinesh Trivedi will participate in the proceedings of the five-day congress. Aradhana Johri, joint secretary, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and other senior officials will accompany the minister to the congress.

During the five-day conference, experts from different countries of the Asia-Pacific region will share knowledge, skills, ideas and research findings in the field of HIV/AIDS. The theme of the congress is, 'Empowering people, strengthening networks'.

The congress objectives include promoting sustainable partnerships among stakeholders and support multi-sectoral collaboration to enable a stronger and more comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS. It will also showcase the successes and the best practices of HIV/AIDS programmes in the region. The delegates will also deliberate on strategies to accelerate the scale-up of HIV prevention, care and treatment services in the region, cross-border issues impacting the epidemic and will facilitate exchange of relevant information and technologies.

The Indian minister will chair two plenary sessions titled 'Health System Strengthening and Sustaining the Response' and 'Translating Political Commitment into Action'. He will also address the session titled 'What it takes to deliver in Asia Pacific Region'.

India has organized special satellite sessions to focus on the response of HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. Keeping in tune with the theme of the congress, one of the sessions to be organized on August 12, 09, titled 'Up-scaling Prevention and Empowering Communities - the Indian AIDS Response (National AIDS Control Programme-III)' will focus on scaling up of the services and engagement of communities in National AIDS Control Programme. Another session organized by UNAIDS-India on August 11 will focus on the role of leadership in providing linkages to achieve universal access targets.

Preceding his visit to Bali, Trivedi will visit Yogyakarta, Indonesia during 7-8 August, 2009 to see the HIV prevention interventions undertaken by NGOs in Indonesia.