Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV: Operational Plan for the UNAIDS Action Framework: Addressing Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV

The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV 2010–2014 (Operational Plan) supports the implementation of the UNAIDS Action Framework: Addressing Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV1 The Action Framework was developed in response to the pressing need to address the persistent gender inequalities and human rights violations that put women and girls at a greater risk of, and more vulnerable to, HIV and that threaten the gains that have been made in preventing HIV transmission and in increasing access to antiretroviral therapy. The UNAIDS Action Framework focuses on action in three areas, outlined below, in which UNAIDS2 and UNIFEM can make specific and unique contributions.

• Strengthening strategic guidance and support to national partners to ‘know their epidemic and response' in order to effectively meet the needs of women and girls.
• Assisting countries to ensure that national HIV and development strategies, operational plans, monitoring and evaluation frameworks and associated budgets address the needs and rights of women and girls in the context of HIV.
• Advocacy, capacity strengthening and mobilization of resources to deliver a comprehensive set of measures to address the needs and rights of women and girls in the context of HIV.

The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV: Operational plan for the UNAIDS Action Framework: Addressing Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (hereafter referred to as the “Agenda for Accelerated Country Action”) was developed through a wide consultative process conducted by the Global Task Force on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV, led by Professor Sheila Tlou, former Minister of Health of Botswana, and Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, as requested at the UNAIDS 24th Programme Coordinating Board meeting.3 The Global Task Force and its three working groups comprised high-level leaders and experts on women, girls, gender equality and HIV from 51 countries and diverse constituencies representing civil society groups, women's rights organizations and networks of women living with HIV, government, academia and the UN system.

In line with the UNAIDS Action Framework, the Agenda for Accelerated Country Action is rooted in a broad-based human rights approach and reflects a number of principles, including participation, evidence-informed, tailored and ethical responses, partnership, the engagement of boys and men, leadership, multisectorality and accountability. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action leverages growing political momentum for positive changes to the lives of women and girls. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action is particularly timely given a range of recent developments that reflect past and present current political commitment to this issue and that respond to the increasing mobilization by women's groups demanding accountability for these commitments and the need to ensure coherence.

The Agenda for Accelerated Action focuses on country-level action, capitalizing on the role of the UN joint teams on AIDS and fostering country leadership. The operational plan supports UN Reform for a more coherent and effective UN response, including within the Delivering as One pilot countries.4

The Agenda for Accelerated Action addresses the rights and needs of women and girls and highlights opportunities to work with networks of women living with HIV and diverse women's groups, while engaging men and boys, in particular those working for gender equality. UNAIDS will seek to collaborate with global partners interested in moving forward the agenda on women, girls and gender equality in the context of HIV, and in particular will work with the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) to leverage resources and seek enhanced efficiencies in resource use.

Although every country is urged to identify actions relevant to its context, there are some common strategies that can achieve results on the universal access targets and the Millennium Development Goals. These may include empowering the leadership of women and girls, especially women and girls living with HIV, access to integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health services, addressing violence against women and girls and addressing the needs of marginalized women and girls. It is envisaged that countries facing different epidemics will be equally engaged, so that lessons can be learned from a variety of contexts. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action is structured around three issues, in line with the UNAIDS Action Framework, that were identified by the Global Task Force as critical to overcoming obstacles to achieving major breakthroughs on women, girls, gender equality and HIV. As outlined below, each issue is accompanied by a recommendation, a set of results and corresponding actions, as well as the parties to be held accountable for delivering results—including the UNAIDS family, individual Cosponsors, the Secretariat, the UN joint teams on AIDS, UNIFEM and other partners, and envisions a role for the to-be-established UN agency for women. The 26 concrete and feasible actions aim to be catalytic in nature, generating synergies between AIDS responses, and to work on the human rights of women and girls and on gender equality and to tap into the richness, expertise and diversity of the women's movement. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action targets strategic opportunities, such as the review of the UN development assistance framework or the development of a new national strategic plan for HIV, to facilitate its implementation.