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On March 8^th, the UCSF Women’s Global Health Imperative (WGHI) celebrated their 5^th annual International Women’s Day Briefing sponsored by Wells Fargo and the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Held in the Green Room of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, this years program focused on the intersections between economics, gender inequity, and HIV vulnerability among women across the globe.

To listen to real audio files of the presentations, please visit the HIV Insite website.

Dr. Eugene Washington, Vice Chancellor of UCSF, gave the welcome address, followed by opening remarks by Dr. Nancy Padian. Mistress of Ceremonies, Dr. Suellen Miller, introduced the evenings speakers.

The keynote address was given by Kathleen Stack, Vice-President of Freedom from Hunger. Entitled, Women Mean Business: Fighting Poverty and HIV together, Ms. Stack’s presentation highlighted three different faces of Poverty and HIV/AIDS: Vulnerability, Victimization, and Victory. Ms. Stack then discussed one way to move to Victory, the Credit with Education program developed by Freedom from Hunger, currently serving over 350,000 women world-wide. Ms. Stack gave an overview of the Credit with Education program and how this strategy is fighting poverty and HIV together.

Second, Megan Dunber, Project Director and Co-Investigator of the SHAZ! Project for WGHI delivered her presentation, SHAZ!: Girls Mean Business Too. Ms. Dunbar’s address discussed the SHAZ! Project, or Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe, which is a combined economic livelihoods and HIV intervention aimed to reduce the risk of HIV among adolescent orphan girls in Zimbabwe. With the completion of the pilot phase, Ms. Dunbar highlighted the lessons learned and strategies for the upcoming full-scale intervention.

Third, Dr. Nancy Padian, Director of WGHI and Associate Director of the UCSF Global Health Sciences presented, Who Means Business? Multi-Sectoral Approaches to Fighting the HIV Pandemic. Dr. Padian discussed specific components of successful HIV strategies, and highlighted two countries that have implemented successful multi-sectoral approaches: Thailand and Uganda.  Dr. Padian also discussed two projects at WGHI, which are using this multi-sectoral approach: Exploratory Center in Behavioral Economic Epidemiology and Adolescent Livelihoods Center in India.

The presentations were followed with  a lively question and answer session moderated by Dr. Suellen Miller. The panel of speaker fielded a range of questions on micro-credit, HIV/AIDS, Zimbabwe, and women's health.

Dr. Nancy Padian and Dean David Kessler presented the Partnership in Women’s Health Award to Brenda Wright on Behalf of Wells Fargo, followed by a dynamic speech by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. On behalf of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Mirkarimi presented Nancy Padian and the Women’s Global Health Imperative with a Certificate of Honor. A reception closed the evening.