At a high-level side event held during the 69th session of the World Health Assembly, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, delegates have urged countries to end gender inequity in the response to HIV by putting women and adolescent girls on the Fast-Track to ending the AIDS epidemic.

“Limited access to health care and education, coupled with systems and policies that do not address the needs of young people, are obstacles that block adolescent girls and young women from being able to protect themselves against HIV, particularly as they transition into adulthood. To reduce HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, we must advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and autonomy to ensure that girls and young women make independent decisions about their own health and are able to live free from all forms of violence.” -Lorena Castillo de Varela, First Lady of Panama

“We need a combined, holistic approach and interventions that support women beyond pregnancy. It is crucial that women living with HIV are meaningfully involved at all stages of these interventions right from design to delivery.” -Angelina Namiba, Salamander Trust

“Besides attending health services to seek care for themselves, many Brazilian women also seek care for their children or other family members. There is in this regard an interconnection between taking care of oneself and caring for others, with women playing a role of caregivers to their family and community.” Ricardo Barros, Minister of Health of Brazil

“As long as men are not involved, as long as men refuse to not join women in the process, we will not reach our goals of zero new HIV infections. We are determined to end HIV/AIDS and this is why in our last annual meeting on AIDS, the President himself decided to increase funding for the HIV response in a very substantial way.” -Raymonde Goudou Coffie, Minister of Health, Côte d'Ivoire

“We have reduced the number of HIV cases, we have reduced mortality, we have increased free coverage of antiretroviral therapy, and we have reduced mother-to-child transmission of HIV. All of this we have done in a strategy to combine public resources with community responses.” -Elvia Violeta Menjívar, Minister of Health, El Salvador

“From the outset Panama has conducted epidemiological supervision of HIV. With the leadership of the First Lady we have revitalized our fight against HIV.” -Francisco Javier Terrientes, Minister of Health, Panama

“What must change is guaranteeing access to all forms of prevention, diagnosis, care and treatment for all, especially regarding young women and the most vulnerable populations.” -Adalberto Campos Fernandes, Minister of Health, Portugal

“Before we implemented the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme we had 70 000 infections in infants – this has reduced to less than 7 000. Despite this decrease the work is still incomplete – we must get as close to zero infections as possible and we are working hard to achieve this.” -Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, South Africa

“We express our hope that 2016 will mark an historic change in the response to AIDS: this year must reflect a major turning point in the response towards the end of the epidemic.” -Pascal Strupler, Secretary of State for Health, Switzerland

“I’m sure you all agree that adolescence is a precarious period in a girl’s life, when significant physical, emotional and social changes shape her future. But adolescence is also an ideal point to leverage development and diplomacy efforts, to break the cycles of poverty and violence, to keep girls in school, to invest in their future. I am confident we can put women and girls on the Fast Track to ending the AIDS epidemic in the very near future.” -Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, United States of America

“It is an injustice that women and girls are prevented from reaching information and services that could keep them free from HIV and give them access to treatment. If we are to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, the world must adopt a people-centred approach that enshrines the right of woman and girls to make informed decisions about their health and well-being, including their sexual health and rights.” -Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS

"This is an extremely important side event. It’s all about ending the AIDS epidemic and working on a very important group – adolescents. If we neglect this age group, we will not be able to achieve our objective of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. I congratulate you for working not only on this issue, but also on the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. This will be decisive to ending AIDS." -Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization

“HIV and TB are somewhat unique diseases. Not just infectious diseases but diseases of society. And we need to understand that. We have to use not only data but also some good common sense. Medical interventions are not enough. They will not address the fundamental aspects of inequality. Data tell us that both health and education together are key. Keeping girls in school is vital. Adolescent girls and young women are not just an issue we need to address but an investment that we absolutely must make." -Mark Dybul, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Flavia Bustreo, World Health Organization

The high-level side event focused on three topics, the elimination of new HIV infections among children, HIV prevention in adolescent girls and young women and access to HIV treatment for all.