Georgetown, Guyana – (February 2, 2016) First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, today, met with a UNAIDS team to discuss ways of engaging Heads of Governments on reducing inequalities which affect women, girls and adolescents, to inform Guyana’s agenda for the upcoming High Level United Nations Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York.
The team, which was led by Dr. Edward Greene, UN Secretary General Special Envoy for HIV in the Caribbean, Dr. Martin Oudiit, UNAIDS Country Director and Mr. Dereck Springer, Director PANCAP Coordinating Unit, met with Mrs Granger at the Office of the First Lady at State House. The UN High Level Meeting is scheduled for June 8-10, 2016.
Dr. Greene told the Ministry of the Presidency that the discussions with the First Lady centred on gender equality and identifying ways to engage other Heads of Governments on issues related to combatting adolescent and teenage pregnancies and violence against women.
“Our agenda was really looking at how we can contribute towards the reduction of the inequalities which affect, especially, women and girls in Guyana. The First Lady is going to be champion. I think she has the knowledge and passion and also a vision of how she would like to see the relationship not only between women and girls, [but] women and men, and girls and boys. I think it’s a perspective that we need to assist the First Lady in promoting and as we go towards the UN High Level meeting in New York. I think Guyana will be well represented by the First Lady,” Dr. Greene said.
The upcoming meeting seeks to chart a course for the HIV/AIDS response beyond 2015, towards achieving the objective of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
The High Level Meeting will comprise plenary meetings and five thematic panel discussions, which will include opportunities for civil society participation. The opening plenary meeting will feature statements by the President of the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a person openly living with HIV and an eminent person actively engaged in the response to HIV/AIDS.
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