Background
In a number of countries in East and
Southeast Asia, the rate of new HIV infections in women is
increasing faster than the rate of new infections among men. This
feminization of the HIV epidemic not only refers to a rise in
incidence or prevalence among women but also to women's increased
vulnerability to HIV due to biological, social and economic factors.
The affect of HIV on women increases in a number of ways, including
increasing the burden of care that women disproportionately carry.
That burden is heavier than it should be due to a lack of education,
economic advantages and adequate health care for women in many
societies. For many women, especially young women, their already
limited opportunities to fully participate in society decline even
further when it becomes known that they are in some way affected by
HIV.
UNIFEM has been working on HIV and
AIDS globally since 1998 and has built a body of expertise both in
policy development and in creating scaleable projects appropriate to
local needs. UNIFEM’s East and Southeast Asia Regional Programme on
Gender and HIV has been operational since 2001 and continues to be
active in several countries, including Cambodia and China.
UNIFEM’s Gender and HIV programme
(2006 – 2009) in East and Southeast Asia builds on UNIFEM’s
rights-based expertise in analyzing evidence and gender-related
issues, working with affected individuals and communities,
advocating for policy and social change and building national
capacity.
Programme Objectives
1) Building evidence, analysis and
advocacy
2) Improving information flow,
cooperation and technical capacity
3) Empowering positive, affected
and at-risk women and their networks
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1. Building Evidence, Analysis and
Advocacy
A comprehensive analysis of issues
surrounding HIV and AIDS in relation to women is still lacking in
most countries of the region. How can national programs be developed
to impact gender and HIV issues if a strategic effort to define
these issues has not happened? If responses are planned on evidence,
how do we know we are asking the right questions in the first place?
Beginning with Cambodia, UNIFEM is
working to improve the evidence base on women and HIV/AIDS, starting
with a baseline on what we know—and what we don’t know—about women
and HIV in these countries. UNIFEM hopes that these efforts will lay
the groundwork for developing further research and action
initiatives, leading towards a greater use of evidence-based
programming and advocacy on women and HIV issues.
2. Improving Information Flow,
Cooperation and Technical Capacity
Closely linked to the above, is the
second programme objective; which seeks to:
(a) facilitate information flows on
women and HIV issues
(b) improve coordination among
partners at both regional and national levels.
This effort tries to ensure that
HIV-related issues which affect women are mainstreamed into other
programs and initiatives addressing women's human rights, including
national monitoring and evaluation processes such as the Three Ones.
3. Empowering Positive, Affected and
At Risk Women and Their Networks
Despite increasing acceptance of the
principles of greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA),
it has been difficult for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA),
especially women, to become involved in responses to prevention,
care and support. The situation today is that there remains a lack
of awareness about the importance of GIPA and a very low level of
involvement of women PLHA in HIV/AIDS responses.
In order to ensure that women’s
voices are heard at all stages of the response, women living with
and affected by HIV need support, encouragement and training to take
their rightful place in the planning and implementation of these
efforts. By focusing on addressing key needs of positive women in
target countries, UNIFEM's work will support the ability of women
with HIV to fully utilize their economic, political and social
rights. This includes improved representation by women PLHA in
policy and decision making bodies, better advocacy on issues
concerning women and HIV, and a more broad-based leadership in
national networks of positive women where they exist.
As husband to wife transmission of HIV
increases in many parts of the region, UNIFEM continues to focus
government and donor attention on addressing power dynamics in
marriage and the family. The way in which power dynamics shape and
structure decision-making processes in the home is directly
impacting on women's ability to negotiate sexual relations with
their partner, including condom use and protection against HIV. By
working with government and NGO partners at the country level,
UNIFEM is identifying innovative ways to reduce spousal transmission
in the region's most affected countries, including Cambodia where
husband to wife transmission represents 43% of all new HIV
infections (National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD
Control; 2004).
CURRENTS
(November 2006)
Women living with HIV in Phnom Penh set up their
own cooperative for income generation and vow to make their factory a
‘model workplace environment’ for people living with HIV in Cambodia.
On 27 – 29 November 2006 the
Positive Women’s Sector of Cambodia (PWS) held a three day workshop for
twenty eight women living with HIV. Held in Takeo Province the workshop
was focused on improving their livelihood opportunities and was
organized by the PWS, with support from UNIFEM and UNDP.
Under its 'Women and Wealth Project' (WWP),
the PWS is providing support to the Modern Dress Sewing Factory (MDSF);
a new enterprise established as a women's cooperative by a group of
women living with HIV. Based in Phnom Penh, the MDSF was set up by a
group of HIV positive women in response to increasing demand from
multi-national companies based in Cambodia to outsource piecemeal
sewing. Several of the women who now work for the MDSFwere experienced
garment factory workers who were forced to leave their jobs as a result
of workplace stigma and discrimination about their HIV status.
The Takeo workshop aimed to strengthen the
capacity of staff to develop the business, and to economically empower
the women workers. Emphasis was placed on extending skills to improve
income generation and developing a safe and HIV-friendly workplace.
In the discussions, key concerns of the
HIV positive women workers were identified. These included workplace
policies on health, hospital attendance to receive ARV treatment during
official business hours, as well as more common concerns regarding
opportunities for professional development, accountability procedures
and factory regulations. Strategies for addressing these needs and
concern are now being developed by a staff-management committee in
response to the issues raised in the workshop.
It was agreed among participants that
networks of HIV positive women should start to advocate on the issue of
stigma and discrimination in the workplace, and that the staff and
management of the MDSF would work together to make their factory a model
workplace environment for people living with HIV in Cambodia.
The Positive Women’s Sector in Cambodia
was launched in collaboration with the National AIDS Authority, UNIFEM,
UNDP, UNAIDS, and UNV on March 8, International Women's Day, in 2005 in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Positive Women's Sector is an initiative led
by women living with HIV and represents a crucial step in bringing
“women’s voices” into the national and community responses to the
epidemic in Cambodia.
Updated:
09 December 2006 16:08 +0700
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