This post originally appeared on and can be read in its entirety at The Well Project. 

The Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI), a program of The Well Project, conducted WRI Virtual 2021: HIV, Women, and Policy in the New Administration on April 6, 2021.

The WRI Virtual 2021 featured a panel of federal experts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), who each provided updates on the agencies efforts and plans around women and HIV. It also featured a panel of policy experts working in advocacy representing the Guttmacher Institute, SisterLove, and PWN-USA, who described what they’re watching for and their advocacy efforts under the new administration.

The meeting included important breakout discussions that addressed what WRI members can do to ensure that women in the US (particularly Black women and other women of color) are appropriately and adequately addressed in the federal HIV research and policy agenda, and how WRI members can support women leaders (especially women living with HIV, Black women, and other women of color).

The meeting delved deeply into the context of the current policy environment, including strengthening racial justice movements, the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and the new administration’s efforts and commitments in the health, equity, and reproductive rights spaces. Attendees noted that the current environment provides opportunities to fundamentally shift the landscape around women’s health and HIV and forge new pathways toward meaningful progress. As with all WRI meetings, WRI Virtual 2021 also focused on identifying actions that individual WRI members can take to address research and policy gaps related to women and HIV through multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration. To learn more, please see the WRI Virtual 2021 Issue Brief: Women and HIV in the Current US Climate: Opportunities and Challenges in Policy and Research.

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The Well Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women and girls. Visit their website, https://www.thewellproject.org/, to access fact sheets (English and Spanish), blogs, and advocacy tools, and to join a global community of women living with HIV.