IRIN examines how a recent resolution to create an agency to promote women’s “rights and wellbeing” by the U.N. General Assembly is being welcomed by international HIV/AIDS advocates. According to IRIN, “[w]omen make up 60 percent of people living with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, a figure that rises to 75 percent in the 15-24 age range. In Asia, nearly 50 million women are at risk of becoming infected with HIV from their partners.”

The agency is seen as “long overdue” by some HIV/AIDS advocates. “‘We see this not as an end but a beginning – the U.N.’s first attempt to form a serious gender entity, and the Secretary-General’s opportunity to make a monumental change both in the way the U.N. operates, and in the lives of women everywhere,’ said Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World and former U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa,” IRIN writes.

“We hope the new agency will help with advocacy around women’s issues, and will lead to more grass-roots support for HIV-positive women,” Marion Natukunda, project director for a Ugandan NGO, said. According to IRIN, “AIDS-Free World urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reserve a seat for the head of the women’s agency on the Committee of Co-sponsoring Organizations that comprise UNAIDS” (9/18).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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