Four 4 Women

Research has undergirded this initiative, and is being communicated in face-to-face and media-centred global, national, and online advocacy efforts.

In May 2009, ITPC and its partners, including AIDS-Free World launched a 6-country research project conducted by civil society teams in Argentina, Cambodia, Moldova, Morocco, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The findings of the report "Missing the Target 7: Failing Women, Failing Children: HIV, Vertical Transmission and Women’s Health" were promoted to a wide range of key stakeholders during the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2009. The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) organised a meeting at UNAIDS headquarters for ITPC to present the findings to over 100 UNAIDS staff. In addition, representatives from AIDS-Free World ITPC held a dialogue with several senior representatives of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Here is a summary of the actions happening in one of the campaign's participating countries: Activists who undertook research for the ITPC's report "Failing Women, Failing Children" teamed up with the Argentinean Network of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (RAMVIHS) and the Argentinean Network of Positive People (REDAR POSITIVA) to launch a campaign during the National AIDS Conference of Argentina in August 2009. Copies of the report in Spanish, leaflets, and posters were distributed to a wide range of attendees, and the campaign was promoted in a plenary session. In September 2009, campaigners met with the head of National AIDS Program and UNAIDS Argentina country office representatives and called for increased national focus on the needs of women in relation to HIV programmes. They have also been providing input to the official government report and a shadow report on commitments such as Universal Access. The National Federation of Gays, Lesbians and Transgender Persons is also supporting the campaign and has helped promote it, resulting in an article in Observatorio Latino and interviews on Radio Nacional.

To read about other advocacy efforts taking place in the countries that are part of Four 4 Women, please visit the various links on the Actions page of the interactive, multimedia Four 4 Women website. This web platform aims to be a resource for advocates working on this issue, bringing together current policy and scientific documents and campaign materials, serving as a tool for e-campaigning, and providing a forum to coordinate actions across countries and partner organisations. Videos are available both on the campaign website and here, on the campaign's Facebook page.

HIV/AIDS, Women, Children.

ITPC explains that infants born to women living with HIV can become infected during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or postpartum through breastfeeding. Without intervention, 25-40% of infants born to HIV-positive mothers will become infected with HIV. Without treatment, about half of these infected children will die before their second birthday. However, effective interventions do exist, and transmission of HIV from mother to child can be reduced to less than 5% if those interventions are accessed. As such, vertical transmission of HIV has been virtually eliminated in the global North. But, in 2008, an estimated 1.4 million pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries, 91% of whom reside in sub-Saharan Africa, gave birth.