28 January 2020
There is increased recognition that removing human rights- and gender-related barriers to accessing HIV- and other health services by populations living with and affected by HIV, is a prerequisite for ending AIDS, reaching Universal Health Coverage, reducing inequalities, and achieving many other Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
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29 January 2020
#InSpiteOf, a social media campaign featuring the right of women living with HIV in eastern Europe and central Asia to live with dignity and respect, has reached more than a million people.
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In sub-Saharan Africa, four out five new HIV infections among 15-19 year olds are in girls according to UNAIDS 2019 estimates. Surveys during 2011- 16 showed that more than half of rural women aged 15–24 in sub-Saharan Africa had been pregnant before their 18th birthday, and as recently as 2016, 40% of young women in sub-Saharan Africa and 30% in South Asia were married while still children. These examples highlight how gender power relations…
Voices from the Field features contributions from scholars and practitioners highlighting new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges. This post is authored by Lanice C. Williams, advocacy and partnership manager, and Mark P. Lagon, chief policy officer, at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The gender assessment tool for national HIV responses (GAT) is intended to assist countries in assessing the HIV epidemic, context and response from a gender perspective and in making the responses gender transformative, equitable and rights based. The GAT is designed to support the development or review of national strategic plans and to inform submissions to country investment cases and the Global Fund.
20 January 2020
Efforts aimed at redressing gender inequalities and socioeconomic inequities can mitigate factors that fuel the HIV epidemic. In a study in Eswatini, cash transfers aimed at keeping adolescent girls and young women in school and giving them greater financial independence resulted in the odds of the recipients becoming HIV-positive being 25% lower than for people who were not…
21 January 2020
The Global Fund, the body that finances the world's HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria programmes, has given Kenya Ksh42 billion ($420 million) to cover the intervening years to 2024.
The Fund wants Kenya to step up prevention of HIV spread, TB and malaria, strengthen health and community systems and make extra efforts to take care of any person considered "vulnerable". It also wants…
17 January 2020
"A woman, the wife in particular, here in Zimbabwe, is being inherited like property after her husband dies even from AIDS, automatically becoming a wife of a husband’s relative who she never knew either had AIDS or not, thus putting herself at risk,"
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14 January 2020
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has rolled out a series of trainings to build the capacity of penitentiaries from SADC Member States to uphold human rights and respond to HIV, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) that disproportionately affect women inmates. The trainings are set to be offered in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi.
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18 December 2019
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women, has trained and empowered 300 vulnerable Nigerian women residing in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps and those living with HIV/AIDS.
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Young women in sub-Saharan Africa remain at the epicentre of the HIV epidemic, with surveillance data indicating persistent high levels of HIV incidence. In South Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) account for a quarter of all new HIV infections. Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) is a strategy introduced by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) aimed at…
Communities of people living with HIV across the world refused to accept the slow pace of progress against HIV. Local peer support groups grew into national and international activist movements, demanding their right to the highest attainable standard of health, and to be treated with dignity and respect.
The purpose of this Technical Brief is to assist Global Fund applicants in their efforts to include and expand concrete and effective programs to remove human rights-related barriers to HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment services. This brief discusses the barriers to access and uptake of HIV services that these programs help to remove, the investment approach to these programs, the various forms the programs take, the need to cost and…
Increasing and sustaining engagement in HIV care for people living with HIV are critical to both individual therapeutic benefit and epidemic control. Men are less likely to test for HIV compared with women in sub-Saharan African countries, and ultimately have delayed entry to HIV care. Stigma is known to impede such engagement, placing an importance on understanding and addressing stigma to improve HIV testing and care outcomes. This study…
According to the Equal Measures 2030 report, Harnessing the power of data for gender equality, no country has yet achieved full gender equality. The Lancet Series on Gender Equality, Norms, and Health shows that this inequality impacts heavily on global health outcomes, laying out the role of gender norms in perpetuating inequities, and HIV is no exception.
1 March 2019
The stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV have left some of those living and affected by it disadvantaged when it comes to earning a living. One group that is affected are women.
To address gender and socio-economic disparities and socio-health determinants among women living with HIV, the Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF) is organising a fundraising gala dinner dubbed “#GirlPower” in conjunction with the…
4 March 2019
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated N$240 million with a view to reduce new HIV infections amongst young women and adolescent girls in Namibia, African Daily Voice has learnt.
…Given the impact of gender inequality on the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls and the health of women and their children, UN Women developed a programming guide “Promoting Gender Equality in Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health” that provides practical guidance and tools to understand the influence of gender inequality on sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (…
In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) account for 74% of new HIV infections among people aged 15-24.1 This is roughly 360,000 AGYW a year – about 1,000 AGYW per day. AGYW experience converging social, cultural, economic, and political factors that undermine their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which makes them vulnerable to HIV infection.
In South Africa alone, about 102,000 new HIV…
5 February 2019
The Ambassador of the United States of America to Namibia, Lisa Johnson recently inspired young women to realise their full potential through the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-Free Mentored and Safe (Dreams) project, an evidence-based programme intended to reduce new HIV infections among teens and young women.
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