African Lawmakers Will Meet To Discuss HIV/AIDS and Improving Women’s Health

Via Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy (9/7/07):

Members of parliament from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania nextweek will meet in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss strategies for fightingHIV/AIDS and improving women’s health, Xinhua News Agency reports.Discussion topics for the two-day conference, scheduled for Sept. 11and Sept. 12, include stigma associated with HIV, women’s health policyand ways to connect lawmakers with communities.

Lawmakers insub-Saharan Africa can be "powerful agents for change in the fightagainst HIV and AIDS and in shaping national health systems to improvewomen’s and girls’ access to health services," a statement from the International Center for Research on Womensaid. The leaders attending the conference are part of theParliamentarians for Women’s Health Project, a three-year initiativefunded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationthat aims to strengthen lawmakers’ positions as advocates for women’shealth care by making connections with constituents, includingHIV-positive women, and through health care policy and budget analysis.

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