"Women at Barcelona" (W@B) is an international coalition of women that is co-ordinating a series of events to highlight gender issues and build women's visibility at this conference.

Over the past few months, women and men from around the world have come together to create a virtual community to discuss issues of importance regarding gender, and specifically women and HIV/AIDS. (To view the previous W@B postings, go to our archives located at: archives.healthdev.net/gender-aids)

With the support of the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the International AIDS Society Women’s Caucus, Health and Development Networks (HDN) has hosted lively – at times even heated – W@B deliberations on the existing Gender-AIDS eForum.

Among the most active sub-topic discussions (during Advocacy and Policy) was that of violence against women and the issue of whether or not the promotion of more prevention options may ultimately be undermining the greater need to change society so that women will less frequently face situations of risk, or at the very least, be more empowered to control those situations to their advantage.

Our first on-site event was the Women At Barcelona pre-conference satellite, which brought together several hundred women and men to discuss women and HIV/AIDS. The focus of this satellite, “HIV and Women's Lives Post-UNGASS: Science and Activism Joining Forces,” was to find out what has happened in the past two years, as well as to make plans towards the future.

Immediately following this was another excellent satellite hosted by the ILO and UNIFEM highlighting their collaborative programme in the follow-up to the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS).

In conjunction with the satellites and the eForum, there will be a series of events occurring throughout this conference week. Many of these will occur under the coordination of Mujeres Adelante, the community forum that will parallel events at the conference itself, with the aim of promoting the empowerment, education and mobilization of HIV-positive women and their allies. There will also be an opportunity for women to come together to debrief on daily experiences and continue to develop the advocacy agenda at the end of each day.

Through each of these activities, and separate working sessions, we will develop a Women’s Declaration. This call for action will be an important global advocacy tool to take back to our homes and communities.

In addition to these excellent working sessions, there will also be a “Wall of Recognition” – an extraordinary opportunity for us to reflect for a moment and remember and acknowledge those women who have so strongly influenced our work on HIV/AIDS.

On Thursday evening, we will enjoy what promises to be an exciting debate on “controversial HIV issues facing women in the new millennium”. For more information on all of these events, please visit the Mujeres Adelante Community Cultural site.

Finally, following this conference, during the month of August, we will host a one-month post-conference W@B discussion on Gender-AIDS to find out what were the most interesting and important issues raised regarding women and HIV/AIDS during the conference and related events.