I am honoured to be here today, and I thank you for your warm welcome. I want to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to OAFLA members for your leadership and contributions to the AIDS response in Africa. I congratulate you, because the work of African First Ladies has been increasingly visible and has made a real difference in the lives of our mothers, sisters and children.

To help measure progress on gender equality and HIV, a global indicator on “prevalence of recent intimate partner violence” has been added to the core indicators for country reporting on the progress in the AIDS response, with 52 countries having reported on the indicator. The UNAIDS family would like to reiterate its readiness to work with all partners to eliminate violence against women and girls and work towards the vision of Zero new HIV infections, Zero AIDS-related deaths, and Zero discrimination.

The consultation has provided an opportunity to reflect on the extent to which the UBRAF has enhanced coordination and coherence in planning and implementation and increased accountability.

This campaign, VCT@Work is not just an initiative that will bring VCT to 5 million people by 2015 and make testing tools available so that people know their status. It is about social justice. It is about redistributing opportunity. It is about refusing exclusion. It is about making sure that innovation, science and discovery are able to reach people without a voice.

This PCB could not be more timely. We have less than 1000 days to report on our progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Today it is important for us to take the time to reflect and shape our future — to look at what could be the way forward, not just for the global AIDS response, but more generally for global health and development.

What we need is a social revolution. First, we must give women and girls the power to protect themselves from HIV by giving them access to the life skills and knowledge of sexuality education. Second, this social revolution calls for a shift in the development agenda. Poverty reduction must be accompanied by an expansion of dignity and freedom for women and girls.

This Commission was formed at a historic moment. A moment when people—especially young people—are demanding equity. They are demanding social justice. They are demanding human rights. And they are demanding accountability. This is a great moment, because it motivates us to reflect, and to not to be scared. It is the moment for us to shape the future of development. I am sure, under your leadership, President Banda, you will help us to be courageous and not to fear the future but to mold it.

Clearly, HIV is much more than a health issue: it is a development issue, a human rights issue, a gender issue and an inequality issue. Tackling discrimination against women is central to the AIDS response. This is why the UNAIDS family has placed gender equality and human rights at the core of its work, as one of the three pillars of its Strategy for 2011-2015, which is based on the UNAIDS vision of three zeros – zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

We cannot afford to have a woman coming into a health-care facility for TB screening one day, then going somewhere else for HIV services on another day, and seeking other types of care at different times and places. We need to consider that a woman is not a collection of health conditions or needs, but a whole human being who requires holistic support to thrive.

Today, we can say that treatment is possible, people are living better quality lives and we are seeing less death because of the revolution that brought these medicines to people. We are seeing declines in mortality rates in many places. Malawi can say that they quickly increased the number of people on treatment, and today have seen an almost 50 percent reduction in AIDS-related deaths. So we have truly moved from despair to hope.