Statement: Message from WHO Director-General on International Women’s Day
WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan
7 March 2014

[Full text; Editor’s bolded text]
On this day, WHO joins others in celebrating women’s achievements. These achievements are inspiring, and they can inspire change. In health development, as in many other areas, women are agents of change. They are the driving force that creates better lives for families, communities and, increasingly, the countries they have been elected to govern.

As I have learned from my discussions with parliaments in several countries, women are increasingly winning top leadership roles, in rich and poor countries alike, and this helps shape entire societies in broadly beneficial ways. Every time a women excels in a high-profile position, her achievement lifts the social status of women everywhere.

To inspire change, all women need to be free to achieve their full potential. This means freedom from all forms of discrimination, freedom to pursue all opportunities, including education, freedom to earn and spend their own income, and freedom to follow the career paths they decide they want.

The health sector can do much to free women by ensuring they have access to all the health services they need, including sexual and reproductive health services. Participants at last year’s London Summit on Family Planning achieved a breakthrough commitment to halve the number of girls and women in developing countries who want modern contraceptives but have no access. This commitment will give 120 million additional women the right to decide whether, when, and how many children they want to have. This, too, is freedom.

Throughout history, women have been associated with care and compassion. Worldwide, up to 80% of health care is provided in the home, almost always by women. This should inspire our admiration, but it should also underscore the need for change. Most of this work is unsupported, unrecognized, and unpaid.

   Polio is on the verge of eradication largely thanks to the millions of women – from vaccinators to administrators to medical doctors and mothers – who have made the vaccination and protection of children their life’s mission. On this International Women’s Day, let me thank these women for a level of dedication that can improve the world in a permanent way.

   The Global Fund said it is “expanding action on gender equality and emphasising the importance of saving the lives of women and girls through increased high-impact, gender-responsive investments to tackle HIV, TB and malaria.” As it observes International Women’s Day, 8 March, the Global Fund cited the health needs of women and girls as a central part of gender equality work that is essential to have significant impact on responses to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Discussions on gender equality were highlighted at a Board Meeting of the Global Fund that concluded on 7 March. Board delegations “were briefed on the new Action Plan of the Global Fund Gender Equality Strategy. Women and men from diverse communities in India, Indonesia, Malawi, Myanmar and Zimbabwe spoke of their experiences with the Global Fund and urged leaders to translate words into action. Over 50 representatives from donor governments, technical agencies and affected women met to determine strategy on concrete steps toward gender equality and to target the world’s health investments towards the populations who need them most…”

Separately, the Board of the Global Fund approved strategic, financial and operational components of a new approach to funding that “offers more predictability, more flexibility, more inclusive country dialogue and a greater impact to defeat AIDS, TB and malaria”… “opening the way for its full implementation to begin this month.”     Full text of announcements:
:: http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/mediacenter/newsreleases/2014-03-07_Gender_Equality_Central_to_Global_Fund_Next_Steps/
:: http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/mediacenter/newsreleases/2014-03-07_Global_Fund_Board_Moves_Forward_on_New_Funding_Model/

IWD 2014: An AIDS Vaccine as a Force for Women’s Equality
Posted by Margaret G. McGlynn, President and CEO, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
on Friday, March 7th 2014

Excerpt
We’ve come a long way in 104 years of marking International Women’s Day. But far too many women remain left behind in far too many parts of the world.

In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is the leading killer of women of reproductive age. Limited education, economic and social dependence on men, and gender-based violence severely restrict women’s power over their own health. Imagine what an AIDS vaccine could change for African women and their children. Photo Credit: Frederic Courbet

In Africa, a vicious cycle of HIV and AIDS and gender inequity continues to thwart women’s hopes for a healthy and productive life. AIDS is the number-one killer of women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa and the world, and women account for more than half of the people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries. It’s a human tragedy and an economic one.  Beyond the epidemic’s direct costs, women are a driving force behind Africa’s economy, and their productivity loss takes a toll. Women own nearly one-third of firms in sub-Saharan Africa and grow at least 80 percent of the food.

Inequity in daily life explains much of the disproportional impact of HIV on women. Limited education, economic and social dependence on men, and gender-based violence severely restrict African women’s power over their own lives and health. An effective and widely available AIDS vaccine will help break through many of the related social and cultural barriers…

Full text: http://blog.usaid.gov/2014/03/iwd-2014-an-aids-vaccine-as-a-force-for-womens-equality/