E/2014/27 E/CN.6/2014/15 infection, and to take measures to ensure that HIV services are accessible, non-discriminatory and affordable to them; 7. Urges Governments and other relevant stakeholders to address the challenges faced by older women in accessing HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, as well as in caring for people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS, including orphaned children in vulnerable situations; 8. Encourages Governments and other relevant stakeholders to scale up efforts to address the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV in situations of armed conflict and post-conflict, humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters, including prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and continuous provision of antiretroviral treatment; 9. Urges Governments and other relevant stakeholders to address the increased vulnerability to HIV faced by women and girls with disabilities, ensuring their equal access to prevention, treatment, care and support, as an integral part of their HIV and AIDS response; 10. Emphasizes the need to strengthen policy and programme linkages and coordination between HIV and AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, and their inclusion in national development plans, and the need to design gender-based policies aimed at social and economic equality, including poverty reduction strategies and sector-wide approaches, where they exist, as a necessary strategy for fighting the HIV epidemic and mitigating its impact on the population, which could result in more relevant and cost-effective interventions with greater impact; 11. Urges Governments to strengthen initiatives that would increase the capacities of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from HIV infection, principally through the provision of health-care services, including for sexual and reproductive health, and that integrate HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and include voluntary counselling and testing, including through effective HIV prevention education that takes into account the epidemiological and national context, while also recognizing the importance of reducing risk-taking behaviour, and encouraging responsible sexual behaviour, including abstinence and fidelity, correct and consistent use of condoms and equality between men and women within a culturally and gender-sensitive framework; 12. Also urges Governments and other relevant stakeholders to address the situation faced by women and girls who provide care and/or economic support for people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS, who are often forced to drop out of school or employment, by increasing the provision of resources, support and facilities to the survivors and caregivers, in particular children, especially in women- and child-headed households, and older persons, as well as to facilitate the balanced sharing of the provision of care by both men and women; 13. Further urges Governments to ensure that the rights of children in child-headed households, many of whom have been orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, are respected and that the heads of such households have full enjoyment of all the rights of the child, and to further ensure that children 44/95 14-02869