Gender and PEPFAR Reauthorization: Policies and Programs

In preparation of the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) sponsored the event, “Gender and PEPFAR Reauthorization: Policies and Programs”, on September 17^th, 2007 to discuss the significance of gender in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Executive Director of UNAIDS, Peter Piot, provided the opening remarks to the event, illuminating the doom of HIV/AIDS programs if the issue of gender inequality is unaddressed. Janet Fleischman, Senior Associate of the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS, presented priorities and recommendations for the PEPFAR Reauthorization discussion, highlighting PEPFAR’s gaps and shortcomings and the opportunities for PEPFAR’s continual growth. Read Janet Fleischman’s report, “Priorities for Action: Gender and PEPFAR Reauthorization”. Geeta Rao Gupta, President of ICRW further elucidated the necessity of integrating gender into HIV/AIDS programs and policies through the presentation of the ICRW report,“It Can Be Done: Addressing Gender through PEPFAR Programs”. From the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), Director of Program Services, Michele Moloney-Kitts commented on the successes and challenges of PEPFAR, emphasizing the hopeful note that the fight against HIV/AIDS can be won. Responses from Congressional representatives, Pearl Alice Marsh (House Committee on Foreign Affairs) and Christos Tsentas (Office of Representative Barbara Lee), rounded out the discussion with the key issues that the PEPFAR Reauthorization must address, principally the issues of sustainability and gender integration.