(as prepared for delivery)

• Your Excellency Ieng Mouly, Senior Minister and Chair of the National AIDS Authority
• Vladanka Andreeva, Country Representative of UNAIDS, Cambodia
• Mr. Choub Sokchamreun, representative of CSOs
• Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen,

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak today at the dissemination workshop for the fifth national strategic plan for a comprehensive and multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS in Cambodia.

Congratulations to the National AIDS Authority and all partners for their hard work developing this strategic, multi-sectoral roadmap to eliminating HIV as a public health threat.

The plan highlights the efforts needed from key ministries over the next four years to create social and legal protections for people living with HIV and other key populations, along with steps to ensure the sustainability of the HIV response. Implementation of the fifth National Strategic Plan will require close inter-ministerial collaboration, and today’s meeting is a critical step to advance that agenda.

But the public sector cannot do it alone. Civil society organizations must continue to play their instrumental role in the HIV response. The fifth national strategic plan capitalizes on their approach to, and expertise in, delivering priority HIV interventions. They have been at the forefront, supporting vulnerable populations, and their role is vital to this multi-sectoral response. This also highlights the need for government investment in CSOs to ensure they continue delivering priority interventions in the HIV response.

Cambodia’s success reaching 90-90-90 has been largely supported by donor funding up to now. However, Cambodia’s impressive economic progress in recent years means that donor funding will likely decline in the future. In fact, one of the pillars of the fifth National Strategic Plan addresses the issue of domestic financing for the HIV response.

The February 2019 SorChorNor#213 on HIV/AIDS domestic health financing is the most recent example of the Royal Government of Cambodia’s commitment towards a sustainable, domestically financed HIV/AIDS response. This national strategic plan builds from that policy commitment by committing the government to funding 50 percent of the HIV response by 2023.

I would like to commend the lead role and advocacy taken by the NAA and His Excellency Chair Mr. Ieng Mouly resulting in the Royal Government of Cambodia’s commitment to increase ARV funding from US$ 1.5 million in 2020 to US$ 5 million by 2023.

As we mark the 70^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cambodia, USAID and PEPFAR remain committed to assisting the Cambodian people reach their HIV elimination goals and to sustain epidemic control.  Specifically, we will work with NAA to closely monitor the implementation of SorChorNor #213 Policy measures.

On behalf of USAID and the PEPFAR team, we thank the NAA for their leadership in the development of the fifth National Strategic Plan. I look forward to the important discussions on next steps for its successful implementation.

Thank you for your continued partnership to ensure Cambodia succeeds in eliminating HIV as a public health threat.