UNAIDS and UN Women working together in Malawi

One of the 11 UNAIDS Cosponsors, UN Women is working closely with UNAIDS to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide. In Malawi, for example, UNAIDS and UN Women have partnered to reduce the impact of gender-based violence and mitigate the risk of HIV infection among women and girls.

“UN Women is the youngest of the UNAIDS Cosponsors, and we are delighted to work closely with UNAIDS and other partners under the UNAIDS Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework 2016–2021,” says Clara M.W. Anyangwe, the representative of UN Women in Malawi.

The Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) is a UNAIDS instrument that maximizes the coherence, coordination and impact of the United Nations response to HIV by combining the efforts of the UNAIDS Cosponsors and UNAIDS Secretariat. Its principal aim is to allocate financial resources to catalyse country-level action in the AIDS response.

“Working together as UNAIDS Cosponsors is just a better approach,” says Ms. Anyangwe. “There is no single agency that can help the country to achieve the UNAIDS 90–90–90 targets. Instead, each agency has a comparative advantage that they bring to the table. In this case, UN Women brings in the gender dimension and UNAIDS its expertise in the HIV response.”

Malawi has made great progress in reducing new HIV infections. In 2017, there were 39 000 new HIV infections, a 40% reduction since 2010, but 9500 of those were among adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 24 years. That is more than double the number among men of the same age group.

“We really value UN Women’s continued support and partnership in ending HIV and gender-based violence in Malawi,” says Thérèse Poirier, UNAIDS Country Director for Malawi. 

Original source: UNAIDS
Published on 07 May 2019