Sophia Forum takes part in preparations for the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS June 2011

As part of our commitment to civil society involvement and broad democratic consultation processes, the Sophia Forum has taken part in a ground-breaking world survey.

This survey consulted virtually, rather than physically, for the first time in the history of the HIV response, with women across all continents of the world. Its purpose was to find out to what extent women feel that the HIV response to date has been effective for them in their own communities.

The "virtual consultation" was led by the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and the ATHENA Network. The survey was conducted on Survey Monkey, by email and, where email was not available, by word of mouth. The questionnaire included both quantitative and qualitative elements and was available in 9 languages. It was clear from our responses that the survey was completed by women from a whole range of different age groups, economic and social backgrounds: women and girls in all of our rich diversity have made our voices heard.

Nearly 800 women from over 95 countries from all around the world responded in a very short time. The diversity of the response was tremendous. The highlights from all the 8 different UNAIDS regions of the world can all be viewed here.

In the UK, the Sophia Forum collaborated with Positively UK, pozfemUK and the Salamander Trust to reach out to women across the UK to take part in the survey. Here you can read the summary findings from the responses from women living in the UK.

The next step in this ground-breaking process is for the findings of women from all around the world from this survey to be presented in a meeting in New York on 7th June. Here the key findings of this global virtual consultation will be presented, together with a Call for Action for the future.

Please come back soon for more information about the launch meeting in New York and for the issues briefs which will be launched then.