AEGiS-PRn: Mobilizing Business Women Leaders in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Mobilizing Business Women Leaders in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

PRNewswire - November 29, 2004

CHICAGO, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- "Millions of girls are dying on our watch." With this compelling charge, Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Ireland, opened the inaugural meeting of the Steering Committee of the Business Women's Initiative Against HIV/AIDS (BWI). Further establishing the urgent tenor of the meeting, Robinson asserted that the escalating rates of HIV positive girls and young women present the world with a critical moral dilemma and responsibility. "A responsibility," Robinson continued, "that demands increased leadership and that employs as little rhetoric as possible. What we need now is practical organization and action."

BWI is the united vision of Mary Robinson and Mary Ann Leeper, President and Chief Operation Officer of the Female Health Company. Discussions at the World AIDS Conference this summer noted that there are a considerable number of women mobilizing to tackle the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS but that there is a discouraging lack of business women leaders actively engaged in the fight. Leaders who, Leeper affirms, "know how to get things done ... and who are able to cut through the red tape in order to achieve results in a timely fashion. We must reach 'her' on her village road." Robinson and Leeper believe that the unique abilities of women corporate leaders could fill a major gap in helping to bring prevention, care and treatment to women in the developing world. This meeting was the first call to action.

The BWI will be an alliance of business leaders, NGOs, public advocacy, global initiatives and bodies bent on bringing innovative and holistic approaches to empowering women with the education and interventions to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. At this time, there is only one method available to prevent HIV/AIDS that is under a woman's control: the female condom (FC). FC provides both men and women with an additional choice to prevent unintended pregnancies and protect themselves against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Despite FC effectiveness, overwhelming bureaucracy and shortage of necessary funds and lack of commitment to women thwart the broad distribution of FC to those most in need.

BWI will actively support FC availability. In addition, BWI advocates the further research and development of microbicides as a critical preventive technology that will greatly empower women in the coming years: 'FC now -- microbicides soonest'. Victories that the FC can achieve in terms of distribution, resource mobilization, and reach will help to pave the way for the broader distribution of microbicides when they become available.

"Through this Initiative, we seek to mobilize women business leaders -- women who have demonstrated expertise in identifying and addressing challenges through the power of management systems, and who have resources to bring to bear to the global issue of women and AIDS," Leeper stated at the first meeting of the BWI steering committee, a group of women from business, public policy, communication and global health agencies who agree with the premise.

The questions being addressed by the steering committee include -- are women business leaders interested to play an active role in the efforts of public sector agencies to fight HIV/AIDS and, if so, what role can best optimize their expertise and commitment in the global effort. Another question is -- how to mobilize this large community of women?

A roundtable is planned for late spring to which those business women leaders interested to play a part in the HIV/AIDS fight will be invited. Advocacy, corporate mobilization, communication, distribution, programming and strategic planning are the arenas to be discussed and from which actions will be taken.

"The spring roundtable isn't for talking, it is for planning, implementation and action," was the final statement made by Robinson and Leeper.

For more information on The Female Health Company and The Female Health Foundation visit http://www.femalehealth.com ; for more information on Realizing Rights, The Ethical Globalization Initiative visit http://www.eginitiative.org .

SOURCE Business Women's Initiative Against HIV/AIDS

Web Site: http://www.femalehealth.com

http://www.eginitiative.org

041129
PR041147

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