Ghana and two other countries bid to host ICASA 2025

Ghana has submitted a bid to host the 2025 International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA 2025), the main organizers, the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), have announced.

ICASA is a major bilingual international AIDS conference that takes place in Africa.

Other countries that submitted a bid are South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, SAA stated in a document obtained by Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult), [email protected], which is a development communication advocacy non-governmental organization based in Tema, Ghana.

As part of the process to select the 2025 ICASA host country, Ghana, South Africa, and the DRC are to lobby SAA-registered members who are to vote for their preferred country. Voting opens on Monday, May 13th, 2024, and is expected to close on Wednesday, 23:59 GMT, on May 15th, 2024.

In accordance with the selection procedure, only SAA-registered and paid members can cast their votes.

Meanwhile, SAA President Dr. David Pagwesese Parirenyatwa explained that voting details would be sent directly to registered and paid members through their official email communication contact.

ICASA 2025 will be the 23rd edition of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, to be organized by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA).

The SAA President said the hosting of the biennial ICASA alternates between anglophone and francophone African countries. The 22nd edition of ICASA 2023 was hosted by Zimbabwe, which presented a tremendous opportunity and was used to highlight the diverse nature of the African region’s HIV epidemic and its unique response to it.

Dr. Parirenyatwa said three countries were selected based on detailed proof of the following: strong government support, financial commitment, and political will to host the conference.

As part of the requirement, countries must provide and financially support the conference venue with a capacity of 5000 plenary rooms, with at least seven breakaway rooms with a capacity of 150 to 1500 seats, and provide financial support for the local secretariat working with the international secretariat.

The host country must also provide scholarships for at least 500 local participants, show the availability of standard hotels to accommodate up to 10,000 participants, and provide conference venue(s) with standard conference facilities and a good transportation network within the country.

Other requirements are a good telecommunication network within the host country with links to other African countries and international communities, the presence of cohorts of scientists, leaders, civil societies, organized groups of PLHIV, the private sector, and youth organizations oriented towards HIV/AIDS-related activities.

The rest include easy access by air and by road where needed, the recognizable presence of government organs or bodies responsible for HIV/AIDS coordination in the country, a good security network to guarantee participants’ safety, easy visa facilities, and assistance to conference participants, and no restriction on entry for PLHIV, MSM, and other minority groups.

The country must not have discriminatory government policies based on gender, HIV status, or religion.

Two countries will be pre-selected based on meeting the initial criteria.

Thereafter, assessment visits will be conducted by two or three SAA’s Council members to the preselected countries, and the pre-selection process will be concluded from May 20th to 25, 2024, followed by notification to the two countries.

After the SAA Council members’ assessment visit and deliberation, the host country of ICASA 2025 will be notified on May 31st, 2024, followed by a press communiqué or release.

Before the final selection of the host country of ICASA 2025 and a notification letter is sent to the host country, an MOU will be signed between the selected country and the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), the organizer of ICASA.

The SAA President is the ICASA 2025 Chair; the host country will appoint a Co-chair for ICASA 2025 in consultation with the SAA. The Council reserves the right to revoke the hosting rights of a country if there are reasonable doubts about its ability to deliver.