Some 4,000 women are expected to meet on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, for their first-ever conference on HIV/AIDS, health minister Charity Ngilu announced.
In an interview with a local newspaper, The Nation, Ngilu explained the conference would provide participants with skills to tackle HIV/AIDS, especially at grassroots level.
The minister said retrogressive cultural practices, such as female circumcision and wife inheritance, also needed to be properly addressed if meaningful results were to be achieved.
Ngilu said: "Women and girls are the most vulnerable and susceptible to HIV infection and they, therefore, need to be empowered to enable them to bargain for safe sex."
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