Home » About the High-Level Task Force for ICPD » Alessandra Nilo, Co-founder and Executive Director, Gestos, Brazil

Alessandra Nilo, Co-founder and Executive Director, Gestos, Brazil

Alessandra Nilo is a journalist, film director and screenwriter with an academic specialization in communication and health. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Gestos (www.gestos.org. br), an HIV/AIDS NGO in Recife, Brazil.

Since 2001, Ms. Nilo has worked with the UN to publicize the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS as a tool to monitor and evaluate the implementation of national HIV/AIDS policies.

In 2003, she developed the UNGASS-AIDS Forum platform in Brazil, which was later expanded to Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and today is used throughout the world as an advocacy and research tool to support a network of women activists in the field of sexual and reproductive rights and health (www.ungassforum.org).

Ms. Nilo dedicates her career to increasing women’s influence on HIV/AIDS policy and decisionmaking processes at local, national and international levels.

Since 2001, Ms. Nilo has represented civil society in the Brazilian national delegations to the High Level Meetings on HIV/AIDS, and for the past five years has been involved with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) delegations.

Currently she is leading the Women Won’t Wait campaign in Brazil and is a member of the Global Coalition of Women and AIDS steering committee (www.womenandaids. net).

She is also the Regional Secretariat of LACCASO, the Latin American and Caribbean Council of AIDS Organizations (www.laccaso.net), represents NGOs from the LAC region at the Program Coordinating Board of UNAIDS, and is member of the newly formed RESURJ (resurj.org), an international alliance of feminist activists seeking full implementation of international commitments for the health and sexual and reproductive rights of women and youth.