WomenLead in the Fight Against AIDS

This 36-page publication is the result of a workshop organised by The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) that brought together ten women from around the world to discuss their experiences related to HIV/AIDS. This report includes an analysis of the gender perspective of HIV/AIDS that came out of this event as well as a summary of stories from the participating women. According to the report, their stories help to create understanding about how the pandemic affects the lives of women and their families, and the way forward.

The report explains that there is cautious optimism in a handful of countries where prevention efforts appear to have slowed the spread of HIV, including in areas of Kenya and Zimbabwe. But infection rates continue to rise in nearly every region of the world, particularly among women and girls. Women, especially adolescent girls, are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men for biological reasons and due to persistent social and economic inequalities. At the same time, people living with HIV/AIDS face enormous stigma and this is especially true for women, who are often blamed for spreading the disease whether or not their partners are faithful. Stigma is an added barrier that hinders testing and treatment, and compounds the effects of the disease on people’s lives.

The report proposes that to make women full partners in the battle against AIDS, international organisations, national governments and community organisations must:

• Address the needs of women in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programmes. The leadership and voices of individual women and women’s groups and networks should be
  supported to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, deal with
  its consequences and care for those affected.
• Fund comprehensive HIV prevention programmes that include public education, condom distribution and equal access to reproductive health care and treatment, especially for girls and women. Principles of human rights and non-discrimination should be
  promoted to reduce the stigma against people living with HIV/ AIDS.
• Expand access to existing woman-initiated methods of preventing HIV infection, such as female condoms, and accelerate research and development of new methods such as microbicides.
• Involve men and boys as full partners to change practices that compound the spread and impact of the epidemic among women, including actions to reduce coercion, violence against women, and traditional practices such as dowry demands, widow inheritance, child marriage and female genital mutilation.
• Address the rights and status of women and girls, including social and economic factors that contribute to women's and girls’ increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. This includes defending
  and expanding women’s rights to education, training, access to labour markets, technical assistance, credit, and inheritance of land and property, as well as to equality with men under the law.