In a message read on his behalf by Habiba Bigdade, Vice President of the Circle Eugene Delacroix at the opening of this important event, Azoulay explained that the Essaouira Appeal, which the participants will work on for two days, "will, I am convinced, be one of hope, lucidity and a spirit of responsibility, because everyone knows that in order to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been necessary to do less elsewhere, and for the first time since the launch of the Global Fund 20 years ago, many health indicators have significantly regressed in 2020 and 2021".

"From Bayt Dakira, a space of reason and pedagogy par excellence, your Appeal will be heard and you will have contributed to the drafting of another roadmap setting as an objective the priority return to investment in scientific research and in the establishment of health infrastructure whose centrality and imperiousness have been understood during the Covid-19 pandemic," said Azoulay.

"This weekend will be a milestone in many respects by allowing us to make a stopover that will help us take the right measure, with regard to AIDS, and well beyond the progress made by the community of nations facing one of the major health challenges of our time," he noted.

As the first glimmers of the post-Covid period are emerging and after more than two years of doubts, fears and uncertainties, fraught with tragedy, the work of this conference will be that of "hope rebuilt and restored confidence, recalling, among other things, that since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund set up to address AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has saved nearly 40 million lives, thus reducing by almost half the number of deaths attributed to these pandemics," concluded HM the King's Advisor.