Today woke up in good time as I had a good night and feel well rested. The first part of the meeting this morning was a report from the Task Force on the Second Independent evaluation. It felt for me like it dragged on for a very long time because I was eager for us to get on with the days agenda which was pretty long. The first discussion was on Gender Sensitivity of the AIDS response which was a combination of a report back on the implementation of the UNAIDS Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (the Agenda) and linking sexual and reproductive health and HIV interventions (follow up to a thematic segment from the 26th PCB).
I was very impressed by the presentations from Rwanda and Liberia on their implementation of the roll out of the Agenda. It is evident that most of our continent bears the burden of women being discriminated upon by cultural practices, violence and gender inequality issues amongst others. I am not at all saying that this is limited to our continent but it is a call for a stronger stance from all of us women to say no to practices that put us, our children, families and in extension the entire community at higher risk of infection. The input by one of the Member State Delegations also struck a chord in my heart because it is one of the leading topics in most of the advocacy in my country. This is the fact that most women in long term relationships like marriage are at a higher level of vulnerability. It has been seen in my country that a lot of new infections are occurring in marriages or long term relationships. Of even greater importance is the fact that the main barrier to women accessing HIV services is linked to stigma and gender inequality issues.
After this was the issue of AIDS, security and humanitarian response. The input that most struck me here was the issue of violence against women in conflict and how this plays a key role in putting women at risk. Cross border issues that more often than not are ignored were also discussed. Once again this is close to my heart because it happens a lot in our continent and follow up on treatment is interfered with or stopped further jeopardizing an already volatile situation because most countries concentrate on national provisions only.
I am beginning to feel overwhelmed by the weight of the various issues at hand when we get to the Universal Access issue. Ideally this target was to have been reached by the end of this year. However by all standards it is understandable that it is not an easy achievement to reach despite the tireless efforts being put in by all the stakeholders.
The meeting got interesting when the High level June 2011 meeting began being discussed. The modalities of the meeting were given by the Ambassadors of Botswana and Australia, the co-chairs of the High Level Meeting. They called for participation at the highest level, meaning that governments should send members of parliament or preferably Heads of State alongside youth, women, orphans and PLHIV.
Finally the election of new delegates went ahead as planned and was uneventful. We were invited for snacks and to the NGO Delegation's debrief of the days events. Everyone was in agreement that the PCB Chair had been very effective in getting the days agenda run smoothly and efficiently.
I feel like I am beginning to understand this whole meeting better. Its a wonderful opportunity and it makes me wish that all people involved in HIV work or directly affected by it could be here to see how much effort is being put in by all the stakeholders to get things moving in the right direction and in good time too. It fills me with hope for the future of all those affected by HIV.
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