‘WE CANNOT WAIT ANOTHER 25 YEARS,’ UNIFEM’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SAYS

The Executive Director of the United Nation’s Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Noeleen Heyzer, has urged the international community and national governments to pick up the pace of delivery on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls to reverse the feminization of the AIDS pandemic.

“While we can celebrate some progress in achieving gender equality and women’s rights, the progress has been far too slow,” Heyzer told a High-Level Session on Leadership at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Sunday, reminding the gathering that the women’s movement has spoken out for more than 10 years on gender inequality as one of the major drivers of the AIDS pandemic.

“Ten years ago, women saw what was happening, especially in Africa, and began speaking out. For ten years, supported by UNIFEM and others, they have been working to place gender inequality and HIV on national and international agendas — demanding greater attention to the ways in which gender discrimination, poverty and violence intersect with the disease to increase its spread — along with its dreadful consequences on lives.”

“We cannot wait another 25 years,” Heyzer said, calling on the international and national leadership to meet the “two urgent leadership challenges of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and delivering on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”

Based on UNIFEM’s experiences working at community and national levels within countries, and with the women’s movement and HIV-positive women’s networks, the UNIFEM Executive Director told the high-level meeting that there are several strategies that can, and have worked, to turn the tide to benefit women and girls.

“It is time to end violence against women in times of war and in times of peace. Ending violence against women in time of war,” she said, is critical because “what we accept in times of war, we will accept in times of peace.”

The UNIFEM Executive Director also urged governments to banish to the pages of history all laws that discriminate against women, and to create spaces for women’s participation in the shaping of HIV/AIDS policies and plans.

“We do have the strategies that work. What’s holding us back? We fear up-scaling the measures and investments to ensure the response is large enough for transformation. Money matters and money must reach the people,” Heyzer said.

The High-Level Session on Leadership was attended by ministers from 20 countries and leaders representing development partners, civil society, positive women's networks, faith-based groups and the business community.

UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations, providing financial support and technical assistance to innovative programmes promoting women's human rights, their economic and political empowerment, and gender equality in more than 100 countries. In 2006, UNIFEM is commemorating its 30th anniversary. For more information, visit http://www.unifem.org/ UNIFEM, 304 East 45th