Top U.N. adviser talks at weekend global symposium on AIDS pandemic

By Linda Myers

Angela King, adviser on gender issues and the advancement of women to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is the keynote speaker at a major international symposium on the AIDS pandemic March 29-30 in 700 Clark Hall on campus. It is free and open to the public.

The symposium, "AIDS Symposium, 2002: Global Problem, Shared Responsibility," begins Friday at 7 p.m. with the talk by King, who also is U.N. assistant secretary-general. The event's key sponsors are Cornell's Institute for African Development, Latin American Studies Program and South Asia Program. The symposium follows a Cornell conference on March 28-29 on a related topic, women's need for further access to higher education in Africa (read the story).

Cornell Law Professor Muna Ndulo, director of the Institute for African Development, called HIV/AIDS "the greatest health challenge ever to face humankind." Globally the disease has created a cycle of devastation, causing more deaths than any war, he said. Every community around the world has been touched by it, with the number of people living with HIV/AIDS estimated at 40 million and the number who died from it in 2002 estimated at 3 million. The symposium will examine the economic, political, security, gender, labor and health-care aspects of the pandemic, as well as effective collaborative approaches among governments, international organizations, the private sector and society. "The organizers hope that the discussions at the symposium will illuminate issues relevant to the global war on HIV/AIDS and inform future research, intervention and policy," said Ndulo.

Among those who will take part in the conference are: Dr. Franklin Lisk, director, International Labor Organization Programs on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work; Dr. Martha Butler, director, Fundacion Genesis, Dominican Republic; Grace Wanyeki, Maendeleo ya Wanawake, AIDS support group, Kenya; Theresa Kaijage, founder, WAMATA AIDS support group, Tanzania; and faculty and staff from Cornell and other universities.

Related events include film screenings of "Odo Ya" (about AIDS in Brazil), March 27, and "ABC Africa" (about AIDS in Uganda), March 28, and an AIDS poster display in Willard Straight art gallery. For details, contact Jackie Sayegh at 255-6849, or see www.einaudi.cornell.edu/Africa/pdf/AIDS.pdf.