About Universal Access Now!
The Universal Access for Women and Girls Now! (UA Now!) initiative aims to significantly accelerate access to HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support for women and girls. Currently implemented in eight countries—Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Madagascar,
Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, and Zambia, UA Now! supports countries to assess and develop an action plan to address key barriers
and gaps in delivering results for women and girls in national HIV efforts, and to ensure that national AIDS responses address
the gender-specific needs of women and girls. UA Now! builds upon UN Member State commitments to universal access and the
Millennium Development Goals for promoting gender equality, empowering women, and combating HIV, malaria and other diseases
by 2015.
With funding from the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UA Now! is spearheaded by UNDP in partnership
with the UNAIDS Interagency Working Group on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV, the World YWCA, and other stakeholders.
Mrs. Elizabeth Mataka, the UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, and Dr. Nafis Sadik, the UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Asia
and the Pacific, have both welcomed the project and are championing UA Now! in their regions and globally.
Country Progress
At the country level, UA Now! involves a diverse range of stakeholders working together, including groups of women living
with HIV, women’s health and rights groups and other civil society organizations, government agencies, UN Joint Teams on AIDS
and UNIFEM.
Universal Access Now! is currently under way in eight countries. Seven of UN Now! countries are in
East and Southern Africa, the region of the world carrying the highest HIV burden; the eighth UA Now! project is in India.
• Ethiopia’s Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office is working on integrating gender into the country’s
National AIDS Strategy and Plan and other relevant national strategies.
• Kenya’s Liverpool VCT, Care and Treatment
is leading a process to addresses risk factors that may undermine the country’s ability to honour the gender and universal
access commitments expressed in Kenya’s National AIDS Strategic Plan and the country’s first National Plan of Operations to
Accelerate Momentum toward Universal Access for Women and Girls.
• Malawi’s Coalition of Women Living with
HIV and AIDS is using the Stepping Stones methodology to address gender-based violence, stigma and discrimination and to improve
women’s ability to access and continue using HIV treatment and reproductive health services.
• Namibia’s Legal
Assistance Center is working to empower women and girls to make safer sex choices and to access HIV prevention and treatment
services without fear of gender-based violence, stigma, or discrimination.
• Zambia’s National AIDS Council
is working to expand support for integration of gender in the country’s National AIDS Strategic Framework (NASF) (2011-2015).
• Rwanda’s Forum for Activists Against HIV Scourge (FAAS) is leading on an initiative to increase the protection of women
and girls from violence and access to the judicial system for survivors of violence and socially excluded women.
• Madagascar’s Action Socio-Sanitaire Organisation Secours (ASOS) is working in collaboration with UNAIDS, UNFPA and
UNDP to assess women’s vulnerabilities in relation to HIV and to ensure better access to HIV services for women and girls
in regions with high HIV prevalence.
• India’s International Center for Research on Women is working with multiple stakeholders to identify and address some
of the key access barriers for women and girls. Findings from the midterm review of India’s National AIDS Control Project
(NACP) III will be utilized in designing NACP IV.
Looking ahead
The World YWCA will lead UA Now! activities at the global level. These include a side event at the 54th Session of the
Commission on the Status of Women/Beijing + 15 in New York in March 2010; a satellite session at the Vienna International
AIDS Conference in July 2010; and a global meeting in November 2010 to reflect and learn from the UA Now! process.
Please
find below two documents that provide further update on UA Now!
