Department of State: Celebrating International Women’s Day by Investing in Women and Girls

Link here. Excerpt:

'Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and Melanne Verveer serves as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.

As we observe Women's History Month throughout March, we celebrate the work pioneered by advocates, policymakers, and practitioners around the world to advance women's rights. Promoting the rights of women and addressing gender inequities and gender norms are essential steps to reducing HIV risk and increasing access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services -- for both women and men.

The Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues (S/GWI) and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are committed to advancing the rights and health of women and girls around the world. Under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, the United States has put women and girls front and center in the three pillars of our foreign policy -- diplomacy, development, and defense.
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Today, at the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day event at the White House, we announced a joint S/GWI and PEPFAR initiative. We will support civil society organizations with small grants to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV), with a link to HIV prevention, treatment or care.
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The White House also released a Presidential Memorandum establishing a working group to explore the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and gender-related health disparities in the United States -- and will include lessons learned from our international work in this area.
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As we move forward globally, we will continue to focus on several key objectives -- including reducing GBV and coercion; engaging men and boys to address norms and behavior; increasing women and girls' legal protection; increasing women and girls' access to income and productive resources, including education; and ensuring gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs and services, including access to reproductive health services.
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For example, over the last two years, PEPFAR has invested close to $155 million in responding to GBV.
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We are also partners in the Together for Girls initiative -- a unique partnership that brings together public, private, United Nations and U.S. agencies to address sexual violence against children, particularly girls.'