<p>I hope you are all rested, both from travel and from our surprise culinary activity of last night. It was a wonderful idea. It was not only a very welcome ice-breaker, which is critical to good dialogue, but it was also an “equalizer” – Prime Ministers, Ministers, government officials, non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders and activists, staff of UNFPA, along with our colleagues from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Development Cooperation were all equal cooks!</p>

<p>Today, on International Women’s Day, let us focus on the urgent issue of women and AIDS. It is a cruel irony that the first place where women have achieved equality is among those infected with HIV.</p>

<p>Good morning. It is a great pleasure to participate with you at this important and timely International Colloquium. It is especially gratifying to join you during the 10th anniversary year of the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).</p>

<p>It is a pleasure to be here today in Chiang Mai to deliver this statement on behalf of Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p>It is a pleasure to be here today in the Ethiopian capital and it is an honour to address the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union.</p>

<p class="bodytext">It is a pleasure to be here at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. It is an honour to be here with the hospital’s founder, Catherine Hamlin, and all of the staff and patients.</p>

<p>It is exciting for me to be here in Addis Ababa for the first time and to participate in this important symposium. I would like to thank the Government of Ethiopia, USAID/Ethiopia and UNFPA/Ethiopia for making this symposium possible.</p>

<p>I am very pleased to be here today with Sharon Camp of The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) to launch this important report, <i>Adding It Up</i>, on the benefits of investing in reproductive and sexual health programmes.</p>

<p>Over the past three days, we have been privileged to be part of this important meeting, to listen, to share and to learn from an array of distinguished experts and practitioners.</p>

<p class="bodytext">We meet in Europe at a pivotal moment. Europe is both a continent of great diversity and a continent engaged in unprecedented integration and unification.</p>

<p>World AIDS Day offers an occasion for communities and decision makers to examine progress made in countering the worst health crisis in modern history.</p>

<p>Today, let us welcome the progress that has been made to reduce violence against women and girls, and question why more progress has not been achieved. Women and girls should be safe in their homes, on the streets, in the workplace and in school. Yet far too many live in fear. Countless others have paid with their lives. In conflict zones, gender-based violence has reached truly alarming levels.</p>