Last year, an HIV-positive woman was nursed to health by her mother and neighbors with food from their small-scale farms and donations from a woman’s church group and local organisation. Through lobbying and media campaigns, the YWCA of India is advocating for universal access to treatment, care and prevention in India. But in many countries with no government programmes to help HIV-positive women access treatment, their long-term health remains unsecured and their families face an uncertain future.

The World YWCA supports programmes in over 22,000 communities worldwide with mostly meager budgets, volunteer work and women’s own giving. But to effectively secure women’s lives, health, and security significant funding and high-level political commitment is essential. Not enough money is allocated to financing the very things that threaten the well being of states – the security and health of women.

Despite growing evidence that investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth, adequate resources have not been allocated to respond to securing women’s status in society. The World YWCA is concerned that the financing of women’s empowerment in the context of HIV and AIDS is not fully on the agenda of the 52nd Commission, despite the UNGASS commitments to gender equality . Resourcing the empowerment of women and girls and the elimination of gender inequalities is central to reversing the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

In situations of conflict women and girls are abused, displaced and their social networks weakened. At the same time, women have the major responsibility of rebuilding their lives and communities, albeit with less access to decision-making positions. Meanwhile, government institutions in fragile states are weak – they have limited revenue opportunities and multiple and complex demands for funding such as humanitarian response, peace building and peacekeeping - leaving women with less capacity and opportunities to access resources for their empowerment. The World YWCA, therefore, urges member states to allocate adequate resources through flexible and accessible financing mechanism for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace and security .

Women have, for a long time, resourced their own empowerment through care work, volunteerism, and donating their wealth, time and talent to women’s organisations. It is now time for the public and private sector to increase their accountability and commitment through resources. The World YWCA calls on member states to match women’s commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls through matching contributions by and for women’s organisations and through support of innovative funding initiatives like the World YWCA Power to Change Fund and the UNIFEM managed VAW Trust Fund.

Founded in 1855, the World YWCA is a global movement that reaches 25 million women and girls in 125 countries, providing them with the space and skills to develop leadership to achieve justice, peace, security, health, human dignity, freedom and care for the environment for the entire community. The World YWCA affirms that women’s human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.