Introduction

In 2006 the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI) launched a new program to strengthen research capacity for African-led HIV/AIDS prevention trials in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which remains at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. The goal of the program was to provide an opportunity for African researchers and institutions to develop their capacity to carry out future clinical trials of HIV vaccines and other prevention technologies.

To achieve this goal, the capacity building

I. Introduction

1. In March 2010, Governments will assemble in New York to review progress made in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), fifteen (15) years after its adoption. In this context, Africa, supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), is reviewing its performance in delivering the outcomes agreed upon in 2004 in Addis Ababa at the Seventh Africa Regional Conference on Women

The developing world was not responsible for causing the current economic crisis, but it is paying a heavy price for mistakes made by rich countries. Poor countries are experiencing significantly reduced income from trade, remittances and foreign investment. As a result, an additional 90 million people are expected to be living in poverty by the end of 2010, and 400,000 more children are likely to die. Progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty has been set back three years.

It is essential that the world's poorest