NEW YORK/GENEVA, 21 September 2023—UNAIDS has designated the First Lady of Botswana, Neo Jane Masisi, as a UNAIDS champion for the empowerment and engagement of adolescent girls and young women. UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, confirmed the appointment during a meeting with Mrs Masisi during the 78^th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Her Excellency Mrs Masisi has a deep understanding of the structural barriers that are making adolescent girls and young women so vulnerable to HIV infection in Botswana and right across Africa,” said UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima. “Mrs Masisi is a fierce advocate for the rights of young women and girls and for the need to support them to stay in school, finish their education and receive the knowledge they need to help them thrive.”

Mrs Masisi has already been working closely with UNAIDS for several years as an advocate for young people. In her new role, Mrs Masisi will champion Education Plus, an initiative launched by UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women to prevent HIV infections through free universal, quality secondary education for all girls and boys in Africa, reinforced through comprehensive empowerment programmes. Botswana joined the initiative in June.

In Botswana, young girls aged 15-19 years old are seven times more likely to become infected with HIV than their male counterparts. During the meeting the First Lady said that surveys showed that between 2015 and 2019 young women and girls accounted for 36% of all new infections in Botswana and 19 are boys and 43 girls become infected every week.    

“I will be serving with this special title at a crucial moment. The SDGs are just around the corner and it is the last sprint to end AIDS by 2030,” said Mrs Masisi. “We will be discussing some hard issues to protect our children and young people. But the good thing about our communities today is that they realise that these are not ordinary times, and they know that doors that were closed, mouths that were sealed—its time they were opened. I remain resolute in directing energies to supporting young people in my country.”

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 19 September 2023—UNAIDS has named the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Fatima Maada Bio, as a UNAIDS champion for the empowerment and engagement of adolescent girls and young women in Sierra Leone. UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, confirmed the appointment during a meeting with Mrs Maada Bio and her husband President Julius Maada Bio at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York.

“I am delighted to welcome Her Excellency Mrs Fatima Maada Bio to the UNAIDS family as a champion for adolescent girls and young women,” said Ms Byanyima. “The First Lady is a strong advocate for the empowerment of women and girls. I look forward to continuing to work together to end gender inequalities that drive HIV including sexual and gender-based violence, and to ensuring that our girls and young women have all the information and knowledge they need to lead healthy lives.”

Mrs Maada Bio is a leading advocate for the Hands Off Our Girls Campaign, a movement launched by President Maada Bio in December 2018 to ban early child marriage and end sexual violence against women and girls. In 2022, she spearheaded the adoption of the first ever World Day for the Prevention of, and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence, which is commemorated annually on 18 November.

Mrs Maada Bio is also a champion of Education Plus, an initiative launched by UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women to prevent HIV infections through free universal, quality secondary education for all girls and boys in Africa, reinforced through comprehensive empowerment programmes.

“My hope is for a future where all women have equal rights,” said Mrs Maada Bio. “Where women and men can sit at the same table and make decisions together, where women are given the space to lead. That is my hope because then we will know that real equality has arrived for us all.” 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Gender inequality and discrimination robs women and girls of their fundamental human rights, including the right to education, health and economic opportunities. The resulting disempowerment also denies women and girls sexual autonomy, decision-making power, dignity and safety.

These impacts are most pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa, where adolescent girls and young women (aged 15 to 24 years) accounted for 25% of HIV infections in 2020, despite representing just 10% of the population.

8 March 2022

Winnie Byanyima

Executive Director of UNAIDS

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Congratulations on International Women’s Day to all whose determination and solidarity is the light of hope and the power for change.

Women are not waiting to be offered a seat at the table, they are bringing their own fold-up chair.

This year’s theme calls for “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. As the women’s movements have brought to the fore, and as all the evidence demonstrates, every development goal depends on ensuring the rights of all women and girls.

Gender inequality is a threat to everyone. We cannot uphold patriarchy and defeat AIDS.

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the intersecting inequalities women face. Surges have been reported in gender-based violence, forced child marriages and teenage pregnancies. Almost one in two women reported that they or a woman they know experienced violence since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Calls to helplines have increased fivefold in some countries during the pandemic. Violence against and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people has increased, as has stigma and discrimination against marginalized communities. The trajectory to gender parity, which already had been 100 years away, is now 36 more years away.

The goal cannot only be to get back to normal, however: normal was the problem. Instead, leaders need to seize this moment of crisis and opportunity to secure transformation. They need to deliver now on the bold policy shifts and upscaled investments that will ensure equality.

We must end gender-based violence. Violence violates the dignity and freedom of women. Violence drives the AIDS pandemic. In areas of high HIV burden, women subjected to intimate partner violence face up to a 50% higher chance of acquiring HIV.

We must remove all barriers to access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Only 55% of women and adolescent girls report being in control of decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health and rights. Maternal mortality is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls aged 15–19 years globally, and HIV is the third leading cause of death among women aged 15–49 years—both preventable when women control their own bodies.

We must ensure that every girl is educated and empowered. Research shows that completion of secondary education can reduce a girl’s risk of acquiring HIV by up to half, and by even more if this is complemented by a package of rights and services. We need all girls,  including those who dropped out during the COVID-19 pandemic and those who were out of school even before COVID-19, in school, safe and strong.

As countries struggle with the current fiscal challenges, services vital for gender equality are among sectors that are suffering the biggest budget cuts. If we do not find the money, we will all pay a much higher price as a consequence.

The only effective route map to ending AIDS, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring health, rights and shared prosperity, is a feminist route map. Equality is the means of progress and is the right of every woman.

Women, in all your wonderful diversity, we the United Nations are on your side, and by your side. 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

“Ending gender-based violence requires a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach. But I am convinced that if decision-makers, at a minimum, push on these key actions, we will have a win–win for everyone: less violence against women and girls and fewer women and girls acquiring HIV or falling through the cracks in accessing and staying on antiretroviral therapy. We must revolutionize the ways of doing business in the AIDS response. Gender equality and women’s rights must be at the centre. There is no room for complacency or acceptance of gender-based violence if we are to end AIDS as a public health emergency by the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

One in three women and adolescent girls around the world endure physical and/or sexual violence from their husbands, male partners or strangers. This violence takes place in their homes and neighbourhoods, where they should be safest. And this staggering statistic doesn’t count the millions more women and girls facing a myriad of other forms of gender-based violence and harmful practices. Under COVID-19, reports of intimate partner violence, child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation and sexual violence have only increased.

For women and girls living with HIV, the risks of violence multiply, including from their intimate partners, families and communities or when they seek services. Among its many consequences and costs, gender-based violence undermines hard-won gains in preventing HIV and ending AIDS as a public health emergency.

In countries with high HIV prevalence, intimate partner violence can increase the chances of women acquiring HIV by up to 50%. Violence or the fear of it blocks women’s access to services and their ability to negotiate condom use with perpetrators, disclose their HIV status or stay on HIV treatment.  

Many women living with HIV also experience discrimination and sexual and reproductive rights violations in health facilities. Female sex workers, women who use drugs and bisexual and transgender people face exceptionally high risks of both HIV and gender-based violence and sexual assault, fuelled by HIV-related stigma, discrimination and criminalization.

Five key actions

In line with the United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030, Ms Byanyima urges governments, United Nations agencies, donors, service providers and all stakeholders in the HIV response to immediately and systematically address the interlinkages of HIV and violence against women and girls, in all their diversity, including by:

1. Getting with the basics: at a minimum, countries should comply with international standards for health-service provision for women and girls living with or at higher risk of HIV, integrating prevention and response measures to gender-based violence across HIV services, including for women from key populations, and ensuring protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
2. Starting early on HIV and gender-based violence prevention: work with adolescent girls and boys to tackle harmful gender norms by investing in gender-transformative education and interventions, including comprehensive sexuality education, instilling values of respect for bodily autonomy, sexual consent, safe dating and use of condoms as the norm, and ensuring zero tolerance for gender-based violence and HIV stigma and discrimination in schools.
3. Going beyond engaging men to seek HIV services: leverage HIV programmes engaging men and boys to incorporate gender-transformative approaches that challenge harmful masculinities fuelling both HIV and violence against women and girls. Men and boys should be engaged in HIV testing and treatment uptake alongside efforts to ensure respect of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and their rights to be free of gender-based violence.
4. Ending impunity for violence against women and girls living with HIV: fast-track legal reforms and enforcement to uphold the human rights of all women to live free from violence, regardless of their HIV status or any other grounds, and end the overuse of criminal laws that target or disproportionately impact on women because of their sexuality, sexual activity, HIV status, gender or drug use. Expand legal and human rights literacy among women and girls living with or at risk of HIV so they know their rights and where to seek legal aid and access justice, and ensure that complaint and redress mechanisms for gender-based violence and reproductive rights violations are accessible across health and other services.
5. Investing in women’s leadership to turn the tide on both HIV and gender-based violence: institute mechanisms for the meaningful participation and leadership of women and girls living with and at risk of HIV, in all their diversity, in decision-making for responding to the twin pandemics of AIDS and violence against women and girls. Invest in feminist leadership and women-led HIV community-based interventions, and value their experiences and expertise as central to an effective HIV response.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Alida Nguimale is a survivor. She has been living with HIV for 21 years in the Central African Republic. Some 10 years ago, she lost two of her children to AIDS-related illnesses. At the time, she was unaware that she was living with HIV, and life-saving antiretroviral therapy and medicine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV were rare in the Central African Republic.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a national workshop on HIV and gender, co-organized by the Ministry of Gender, the Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Council and UNAIDS, in Bangui, Central African Republic, on 30 and 31 August, Ms Nguimale explained how she was expelled from her home by her abusive partner, who accused her of bringing HIV into the household. She also recounted her helplessness in the face of denial and violence by her partner, who had refused to accept his own HIV-positive diagnosis.

Ms Nguimale’s story illustrates the vulnerability to HIV of women in the Central African Republic and the barriers that they face in accessing health services. More than 56% of all new HIV infections in the country in 2019 were among women and girls, and 60% of all people living with HIV in the country are women. According to data from the MICS-6 survey published in 2021 by the government, with the support of the United Nations, 23.6% of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 years were married or entered into a marital union before the age of 15 years. More than 21% of central African women had undergone female genital mutilation. In January 2021 alone, 340 cases of gender-based violence, including 72 rapes, were collected by the gender-based violence information management system in the Central African Republic.

“The vulnerability of women and girls to HIV in the Central African Republic is the consequence of protracted insecurity, violence and humanitarian crises compounded with toxic masculinities and negative social norms. There can be no end of the AIDS pandemic without renewed action and accountability to end this plague of gender-based violence and the social marginalization of women,” said Denise Brown, the Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the Central African Republic, Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Resident Coordinator.

For the first time, the Government of the Central African Republic, with the support of UNAIDS, conducted a thorough assessment of the gender dimensions of the HIV epidemic and response in the country. The assessment report, which was discussed and adopted during the national workshop on gender and HIV, warned that women, girls and key populations are being left behind in the recent progress made against HIV in the country. HIV prevalence is highest among sex workers, at 15%, and among gay men and other men who have sex with men, at 6.4%, compared to 3.6% among the general population. Access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services also remains worryingly low, with less than 25% of women accessing such services in three of the country’s seven health regions.

“The gender assessment report alerts us on a blind spot in our response. We must refocus our efforts on transformative interventions that work for women, girls and key populations,” said Pierre Somse, the Minister of Health of the Central African Republic.

Building on the recommendations of the gender assessment, the participants of the meeting developed and adopted an action plan to implement key interventions in 2021–2023. The action plan includes a combination of structural, biomedical and behavioural interventions to promote gender-transformative education and sensitization, to address the legal, social and cultural barriers to access to HIV services by women, girls and key populations, to implement differentiated models of care that promote access to health, social and psychosocial services for women, including for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and to ensure accountability for progress on gender, HIV and tuberculosis. The Minister of Gender, Marguerite Ramadan, noted that the assessment report and the action-oriented operational plan that ensued are essential to implement the vision of equality in the 2021 United Nations Political Declaration on AIDS.

Expressing satisfaction after the adoption of the operational plan, Patrick Eba, the UNAIDS Country Director for the Central African Republic, said, “UNAIDS is at its best when it brings together government, civil society, development partners and other stakeholders to critically assess the national response to HIV and articulate a collective agenda for action. There is no better way to vindicate the rights of those millions of women like Ms Nguimale who demand dignity, justice and health.”

On 10 June, representatives of the United Nations, Member States, young women’s movements and civil society laid out strategic pathways for advancing gender justice and women’s rights and agency at a thematic panel, Advancing Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls in the AIDS Response, held during the United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS.

Despite significant progress in the HIV response, the epidemic continues to take a heavy toll on women and girls. This was an opportunity to reflect on the realities of women and girls in all their diversity in the context of the HIV response and to share forward-looking recommendations on gender equality.

The event came on the heels of a new global pledge by world leaders to reduce the annual number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, eliminate new HIV infections among children, end paediatric AIDS and eliminate all forms of HIV-related discrimination by 2025. Governments missed the targets made in 2016 to reduce the number of adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 years becoming newly infected with HIV to 100 000 per year by 2020.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director of UN Women, noted the enormous work yet to be done, especially with the challenging convergence of gender-based violence, COVID-19 and HIV, with increased levels of violence against women and girls during lockdowns, spiking by up to 500% in some countries.

Nadine Gasman, President of the National Institute for Women, Mexico, shared best practices from Mexico, where municipal authorities and civil society have worked together to improve access to comprehensive quality HIV services for left-behind populations, such as transgender people, and integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health services for women living with HIV as well as for gay men and other men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs.

The panel noted that many women, girls and gender-diverse communities at higher risk of and living with HIV are being left behind in HIV testing, treatment and care services. Women and girls continue to face intersecting forms of discrimination, stigma, violence and criminalization.

Particular concern was raised about adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, who remain at intolerably high risk of HIV. In 2020, six in seven new cases of HIV among adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 years in the region were among girls. The participants stressed the importance of leveraging education, particularly girls’ completion of quality secondary education, as a powerful entry point for accelerating HIV prevention, gender equality, an inclusive environment free of stereotypes, economic empowerment and preventing gender-based violence.

Education Plus, a bold new initiative co-led by the heads of UNAIDS, UN Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund that is calling for high-level political action for the empowerment of young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa to urgently reduce HIV was hailed as a timely and much needed response. Many emphasized the need to put gender justice at the heart of the HIV response and the sustained meaningful engagement and inclusion of adolescent girls and young women in decision-making at all levels.

The calls to action stressed the importance of scaling up investments in gender-transformative interventions and support for young people’s movements and leadership in the HIV response, legal and policy reforms in parental consent requirements that undermine the right to health of adolescents, the protection of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all women and adolescent girls and urgently scaling up comprehensive HIV prevention programmes as well as engaging men and boys in transforming harmful gender norms and promoting positive masculinities.

Quotes

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by political instability since the 1990s and has seen widespread attacks against civilians, violence between ethnic factions, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and murder. Sexual violence against adolescent girls and young women is common.

Violence against women and girls continues to be a global pandemic that affects one in three women in their life. Violence against women is a major factor for contracting HIV—in areas with a high HIV burden, such as sub-Saharan Africa, women subjected to intimate partner violence are 50% more likely to be living with HIV. And men who are perpetrators of violence against women tend to be at a higher risk of HIV themselves and to use condoms less frequently, thus increasing the risk of HIV transmission.

According to the latest Demographic and Health Survey of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, HIV prevalence is three times higher among women aged 15–49 years (1.1%) than among men of the same age (0.4%) and twice as high among young women aged 15–24 years (0.46%) than among young men of the same age (0.22%).

RENADEF (Réseau National des ONG pour le Développement de la Femme), a platform of approximately 350 non-state groups working for women, is tackling this issue front and centre. As a subrecipient of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, RENADEF is running a project to strengthen awareness around sexual and reproductive health and rights, including HIV, to facilitate access to support services and to encourage behaviour change among adolescent girls and young women in 16 HIV high-burden provincial divisions.

In collaboration with health-care providers, almost 200 peer educators and mentors have been trained on sexual and reproductive health and more than 600 educational talks in different settings, including schools and communities, have been facilitated, reaching more than 6500 people, including 2500 girls.

“I was not informed about sexually transmitted infections and their consequences on my life, but I had the chance to participate in an awareness session organized by the peer educators and mentors in my neighbourhood; at the end of the session, I approached one of the sensitizers to explain my problem to her. She gave me advice and referred me to a health training, where I was taken care of for free and I feel good now,” said Nathalie Nyembwe (not her real name), who attended one of the educational talks.

The project also supports clinics giving psychosocial, legal and judicial support to survivors of sexual violence. Since 2018, clinics have been held that have provided psychological support to almost 5500 people and legal/judicial support to more than 3500 survivors of sexual violence.

The community sensitization, capacity-building of legal clinics and support for survivors of sexual violence have contributed to an increase in the reporting of rape.

“It’s particularly important, particularly as we reflect on our experience with COVID-19, that we acknowledge the important role that women have played to protect others from violence, to ensure continued support to vulnerable families and to ensure access to food and medicine. Women have provided invaluable support to keep people connected to neighbours, services and information, all the while ensuring that homes remain a safe space for children and families to continue to learn and grow socially,” said Susan Kasedde, the UNAIDS Country Director for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As a champion country of the Global Partnership for Action to Eliminate all Forms of HIV-Related Discrimination, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a unique opportunity to strengthen its implementation of coordinated, comprehensive and scaled-up action involving a range of stakeholders and to build synergies on action on gender equality across sectors. 

8 March 2021

Winnie Byanyima

Executive Director of UNAIDS
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Women leaders have provided a guiding light for the world in responding to the COVID-19 crisis, from heads of government to coordinators of grass-roots social movements. They have reminded the world how crucial it is to have critical numbers of women, in all their diversity, in positions of leadership.

But the COVID-19 crisis has seen progress towards equality pushed back. It has widened the gap between women and men in wealth, in income, in access to services, in the burden of unpaid care, in status and in power.

Up to 20 million more secondary school-aged girls could end up out of school following the crisis. Many may never go back to school or have access to skills and economic opportunities, and will be at greater risk of violence, poor health, poverty and more.

Two and a half million more girls are now at risk of child marriage in the next five years. There has been a dramatic increase in violence against women.

Pandemics such as COVID-19 and HIV magnify the fissures in society and exacerbate vulnerabilities. Gender-based and intersecting inequalities and violence hold back the lives of women and girls all over the world.

The pandemic has brought into sharp and painful focus that even before COVID-19 an estimated 34 million girls between the ages of 12 and 14 years were out of school, one in three women globally reported having experienced physical or sexual violence and women the world over worked longer hours for less or no pay.

Women who were already stigmatized are among those who are being hardest hit by the impacts of the pandemic. The sudden loss of the livelihoods of sex workers and their lack of access to health care and social protection have intensified their vulnerabilities, especially for those living with HIV. Many female migrants and precarious workers adversely affected by the pandemic are excluded from government relief and protection programmes, as well as health services. Stigma, discrimination and criminalization put transgender women, and women who use drugs, at heightened risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and hold them back from accessing HIV prevention, treatment and care services.

Recovery strategies cannot be gender-blind or gender-neutral: they must overturn the inequalities that hold women back.

Together, UNAIDS, UN Women, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Population Fund have convened a broad movement, Education Plus, to work with governments to secure the transformative changes that will enable all of Africa’s adolescent girls to be in school, safe and strong. That includes all the girls who have been pushed out of school during the COVID-19 crisis and those who were excluded from school even before the crisis hit.

Overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, and ending new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, both require that we close in on the inequalities that drive vulnerabilities. The new global AIDS strategy 2021–2026 puts the rights and multiple and diverse needs of women and girls across their life cycle at the centre of the response: from preventing vertical transmission to providing access to quality education in safe and supportive environments to ensuring comprehensive sexuality education and holistic sexual and reproductive health services.

Gender inequality is not only wrong. It is dangerous. It weakens us all. A more equal world will be better able to respond to pandemics and other shocks; it will leave us healthier and safer and more prosperous.

Progress on gender equality has never been automatic. It has never been given, it has always been won.

We are inspired by the women’s movements leading the struggle for equality. The United Nations stands alongside you to advance a world where women and girls in all their diversity will thrive and take their rightful places as equals.

This International Women’s Day let’s support and celebrate women taking the lead.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.