In my many years as a community organizer and AIDS advocate, I have seen countless overconfident decision-makers attempt to roll out new technologies or approaches without listening to women—and then fail. In contrast, programmes shaped by women living with HIV have been at the heart of breakthroughs. From ensuring appropriate treatment for pregnant women to expanding access to prevention, women living with HIV spoke up, and helped to demand and to inform rigorous studies, to ensure services succeeded in their public health goals.

Just as we have learned that women are more powerful when we work together, we have also learned that the communities most affected by HIV have a greater ability to influence decisions when we work together. This is why different movements have brought our struggles together. This is why, as an organization led by women living with HIV, we speak out in support of the rights and services of all key populations and of adolescent girls and young women.

We have learned too the art of finding out who in authority is or could be our friend to work together to effect change. We have been inspired by people in authority who have recognized that a determined civil society is not an obstacle to public health planning but the way to ensure public health planning succeeds.