- Are governments keeping their promises?

On World AIDS Day, December 1, AIDS Accountability International hosted the launch of its new rating initiative, The AIDS Accountability Scorecard on Women in Stockholm, Sweden. The event featured prominent speakers within the field of HIV/AIDS and gender, who discussed the urgent need to address the vulnerability of women in the HIV response, and the importance of strong leadership and accountability in achieving internationally agreed goals and targets.

State Secretary to the Minister of International Development Cooperation, Mr. Joakim Stymne, opened the event, and AAI’s Scientific Director Dr. Per Strand presented the AIDS Accountability Scorecard on Women and its key findings. Senior advisor at Noak’s Ark, Ms. Ophelia Haanyama Orum, presented a personal reflection on her experience as a woman living with HIV, and spoke about the need for more women leaders, ‘Today is World AIDS Day, but every day is AIDS day for me. Thank you for joining me today’.

Mr. Rodrigo Garay, AIDS Accountability International’s Executive Director, also highlighted the importance of men in the response, ‘It is time for us as men and leaders to take action and help improve the situation for women’.

Other key speakers included the President of RFSU, Ms. Åsa Regnér, the founding Chairman of AAI, Prof. Lars O. Kallings and the President of UNIFEM’s National Committee Sweden, Ms. Maud Edgren-Schori. Ms. Marie Hedlund Dahlberg moderated the event. The Royal College of Music provided musical intonation, and art by Marianne Bergengren was also exhibited.

Participants in the event included ambassadors and other country representatives, whilst representatives from civil society and research institutions also attended.

Martin Savidge interviews Nazneen Damji, the program manager of gender equality at the United Nations Development Fund for Women, about the Scorecard on Women.

Damji discusses the growth of AIDS among women and looks at the countries where women are most vulnerable to the virus. She also discusses the Scorecard as a tool for dialogue on how to better address women´s needs in the HIV/AIDS response.

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“The AIDS Accountability Scorecard on Women is an important tool for holding governments accountable for their promises to those affected by HIV/AIDS. I am pleased to see a focus on the specific roadblocks that women and girls face in the epidemic. Empowering women and girls with the resources they need to protect themselves are critical to prevention and quality care for all.”

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, President and CEO, CARE USA

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Scorecard on Women press launch on November 23 with Elizabeth Mataka, Sigrun Møgedal and Mo Ibrahim.

Elizabeth Mataka

“We are losing too many women to this disease by not focusing on the practical interventions that really help them protect themselves from HIV infection. Nor are we holding governments accountable for their lack of action,” said Elizabeth Mataka, the United Nations Secretary-General‟s Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa. “Women matter, and it is time all governments acted on their commitments to protect women and girls from HIV/AIDS.”

Mo Ibrahim

“We need to ensure that the social, political and economic rights of women are enshrined in law and protected,” said Mo Ibrahim, business leader and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an African initiative that aims to stimulate debate about governance. “Holding governments and other key players accountable for women‟s and girls‟ rights is essential to protecting them from HIV infection and getting them the health care they lack in so many of the world‟s countries.”

Sigrun Møgedal

Norwegian HIV/AIDS Ambassador Sigrun Møgedal said: “The findings of the Scorecard show that we know very little about what many countries are doing to reduce women‟s vulnerability to HIV infection or increase their access to essential services. Even more troublesome is the almost total absence of data on young girls, who are perhaps more vulnerable to HIV than any other population. Where is the accountability for them?”

Press release Scorecard on Women (pdf)

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The Scorecard on Women shows that we know far too little about what many countries are or are not doing to address women and girls’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. We know especially little about girls, a population for which virtually no data are being collected or reported to the UN.

The most troubling of the Scorecard on Women’s findings is that 75% of nations failed to report basic information to the United Nations about their domestic responses to the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on women. The Scorecard also found that countries with higher AIDS burdens are doing a far better job overall at reporting how their AIDS responses address the needs of women than are countries less severely impacted by the epidemic.

The map shows country reporting on UNGASS data specific to women.

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The European Development Days hosted by the European Commission and the EU Presidency Sweden, took place in Stockholm the 22-24 of October.

This yearly event brings together organizations from the development community, heads of state and leading world figures on EU´s commitments to development.

AAI co-hosted the EDD event “Global Health Challenges”, in collaboration with the Global Fund, UNAIDS, GAVI Alliance and Stop AIDS Alliance. The event aimed at discussing effective approaches to meeting the forthcoming deadline of Universal Access by 2010 and achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals.

The event panelists were: Jacki Davis- European Policy Centre, Julian Schweitzer- The World Bank, Baba Goumbala- International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Senegal, Michel Kazatchkine- The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Per Strand- AIDS Accountability International, Michel Sidibé- UNAIDS, Luis Riera-Figueras, European Commission, Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane- Zulu Parliament of South Africa, Kevin Cahill- Comic Relief, Joëlle Tanguy- GAVI Alliance, Sylvia Mathews-Burwell- Gates Foundation, Rosa Elcarte Lopez- AECID, Spain, Anders Nordström- Sida Sweden.

AAI’s Scientific Director Per Strand epmhasized the need for more information on how human and financial resources are being used, and to analyse to what degree countries are meeting the targets they have set for themselves in national policies and international commitments.

“We need better monitoring and transparent reporting of data in order to measure the impact of different approaches to the epidemic, promote best practices, reward effective efforts and adjust or stop ineffective interventions that draw needlessly on scarce resources.”

Read more about the Global Health Challenges event:

Global Health Challenges- event flyer

Read more on UNAIDS Website

Lars O. Kallings

The AIDS Accountability Leadership Award is presented to persons who play an exceptional role in promoting accountability in the international response to HIV/AIDS.

Professor Lars O. Kallings has shown a long term commitment in pointing out the lack of leadership and accountability as a major obstacle in improving the global HIV/AIDS response. After many years of experience within the fields of HIV/AIDS, Professor Kallings emphasizes this standpoint in his book “The uttermost plague - The book on AIDS”;

“Governments must [...] be put under pressure and held accountable via independent investigation and by making public information about how they carry out the measures they have undertaken to realise and how they have spent the funds put at their disposal by the world community. What is needed is a world opinion which will make governments answer for their omissions that have led to suffering and death for millions of people. The glow of repressed anger must flame up – in a forceful global movement that will jolt the world.” Lars O Kallings, The uttermost plague-The book on AIDS

This perspective and convincement also lead him to support the establishment of AIDS Accountability International. Professor Kallings has given an inspirational example through his own acting how a policymaking leader can make a change, and transform words and commitments into action. AAI is therefore honoured and proud to extend our deepest gratitude and congratulations to the 2009 Award laureate!