Strong political leadership is needed to help accelerate HIV prevention efforts, as about 1.3 million people across the globe contracted HIV last year.

This was raised at the HIV Multi-Sectoral Leadership Forum in Windhoek.

Although progress has been made in HIV prevention efforts, there's still a long way to go in reducing new HIV infections by less than 370,000 annually by 2025. 

In east and southern Africa, about 300,100 girls are infected each week.

This calls for a multispectral approach to address barriers hindering progress.