Financing and Resourcing Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the Context of HIV and AIDS

Venue : Mexico City, Centro Banamex Session Room 8 (SR8)
Date : August 3, 2008
Time : 15:45 - 17:45

In many regions of the world HIV and AIDS disproportionately affect women and girls. In 2007, an estimated 15.4 million women were living with HIV—a 1.6 million increase from 2001. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 61% of adults living with HIV in 2007 were women. Although women’s organisations and grassroots groups have been responding to HIV and AIDS, recent reports indicate that they face many challenges in accessing quality sustainable resources for their work on AIDS. Yet, financing women’s empowerment and gender equality is essential in reversing the impact of the HIV pandemic.

“As the pandemic becomes more feminised, it is important for world leaders to build on the capacity and leadership of women and girls at the frontline of the HIV response,” says Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of the World YWCA.

Moderator: Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary, World YWCA
Welcome: Susan Brennan, President, World YWCA and Inés Alberdi, Executive Director, UNIFEM

Panellists :

• Kousalya Periasamy , Founding Member of the Positive Women's Network (PWN+): Community experiences and challenges in accessing resources
• Terry McGovern, Ford Foundation: Innovative approaches to financing women's empowerment
• Lydia Alpizar Duran , Executive Director, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID): Aid effectiveness and implications for financing gender and HIV and AIDS
• Anne Skjelmerud , Senior Adviser, Coordinator HIV and AIDS Avdeling for helse og aids (AHHA) Global Health and AIDS Department: Norwegian experiences in relation to integrating gender and HIV in development
• Neelanjana Mukhia , International Women's Rights Policy and Campaign Coordinator, Action Aid International Secretariat Women Won't Wait: Key recommendations

For more information and to book interviews contact: Sylvie Jacquat tel: + 52 55 21767189 email: sylvie.jacquat@worldywca.org
Visit: www.worldywca.org