Keeping the Promise: An Agenda for Action on Women and AIDS

This 32-page publication, offered by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)'s Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, advocates for increased attention to the particular ways in which women worldwide are vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. It provides statistics designed to illustrate the fact that AIDS is affecting women and girls worldwide in increasing numbers. For instance, globally, women comprise almost 50% of the people living with HIV; 74% of young people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

According to the Global Coalition, gender inequality and the low status of women are the principal drivers of HIV. However, as the data included in this report indicate, current AIDS responses tend not to tackle the social, cultural, and economic factors that put women at risk of HIV, and that unduly burden them with the epidemic's consequences.

To that end, the Global Coalition calls on national governments and the international community to undertake a massive scaling up of AIDS responses for women and girls. Central strategies proposed in this report include:

1) Secure women's rights

• Ensure that laws protect women against violence, and uphold their right to own and inherit property.
• Invest in strategies to educate the police, the judiciary, social service providers, civil servants, and community leaders about laws and their legal responsibilities.
• Develop and fund programmes to improve legal aid services and other forms of support so that women can claim their rights.

2) Invest more money in AIDS programmes that work for women

• Review and adapt existing AIDS strategies to ensure they work for women.
• Expand access to the services women need - including education, sexual and reproductive health, antenatal care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and antiretroviral therapy.
• Close the funding gap for microbicide development and the female condom.
• Scale up support to caregivers.

3) Ensure that more women are included at the tables of forums where AIDS policies are decided, strategies forged, and funds allocated

• Review the membership of national AIDS coordinating bodies to ensure the meaningful representation of women and people with gender expertise.
• Invest more in training women, especially those living with HIV, to be effective advocates and leaders in the AIDS response.

The Global Coalition offers the following example of the power of women's participation: "The Viet Nam Women's Union (VWU), which has a membership of 13 million women and a presence in every commune throughout the country, has made AIDS prevention one of its core priorities in promoting the welfare of women and families. Through the foundation of over 300 community-based Empathy Clubs, the VWU supports individuals and families living with HIV to come together for mutual support and to access treatment, counselling, and micro-credit. The VWU produces its own brand of Hello and Yes condoms, empowering women to discuss condom use and reducing misconceptions that condoms are just for commercial sex. Its influence and outreach have already resulted in programmes to increase women's access to reproductive health services and strengthened the government's ability to improve the AIDS response for society as a whole. Efforts to share the VWU's experience with other women's Unions in the region are underway."