By Beatrice Savadye
Zimbabwe will this week host a high level Global Power Network Africa Summit set for 24-25th of May 2012 in Harare.
The summit which is running under the theme “Accelerating Action for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in the area of HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” will draw the delegation of about 300 parliamentarians, development partners, civil society leaders, and African women entrepreneurs from across Africa.
The Global Power Network Summit which is chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Hon Thokhozani Khupe has organised this high level meeting in collaboration with African Union and UNAIDS .
The meeting is expected to be “a strategic political platform to advance innovative game-changing approaches that positively impact the lives of women and girls in Africa in relation to HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and to accelerate action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular Goals 3, 4, 5 and 6″.
More women than men in Sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV. In 2010, women accounted for 59% of people living with HIV on the continent, with young women aged 15 to 24 being at particular risk. In some countries women in this age group are up to six times more likely to be infected than young men of the same age.
In 2010, an estimated 390 000 children under 15 years were newly infected with HIV globally of that total 350,000 were in Africa. More than half of all maternal deaths are estimated to occur in Africa, with an average maternal mortality ratio of 620 per 100 000 live births, a significant proportion by AIDS-related causes.
The outcomes of the high level meeting will be tabled at the African Union Heads of States summit to be held in Lilongwe in July 2012 as well as the International AIDS Conference in Washington in July 2012.
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