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UNDP/Japan Women In Development Fund |
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Joint Initiative on
Women's Leadership in the Arab Region's
HIV/AIDS Response
he UNDP/UNFPA/Japan Women in Development Fund (JWIDF) Joint Initiative on Women's Leadership in the Arab Region's HIV/AIDS Response was created in response to the increasing vulnerability women face in the region to HIV/AIDS. The Joint Initiative addresses the underlying causes that fuel gender inequality which marks the feminization of HIV/AIDS in the region and contributes to the sharp increase in general HIV infection rates.
Partnering with regional stakeholders to strengthen the pan-Arab response to HIV/AIDS, the initiative specifically aims to reduce the spread and feminization of the HIV epidemic and to create an enabling environment that promotes and protects the rights of women. It s designed to raise the awareness of all women rights agencies involved in the region (e.g. Women's NGOs, FBOs, governmental and international bodies) of AIDS as a development issue and to mobilize them to respond to its challenge through breakthrough initiatives at community, national, regional and global levels.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has reached every corner of the globe showing that no region is immune to its impact. In the Arab region, one new HIV infection occurs every 20 minutes. Today, well over half a million people are living with HIV in this region with 67,000 people newly infected in 2005 alone .The number of AIDS deaths in the region has increased almost six -fold since the early 1990 .If current trends continue, it is projected that countries in the region will face infection rates of 4% by 2015.
Women and girls now make up almost half of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the region compared to 40% in 2001. Young women aged 15 to 24 are more than twice as likely to be living with HIV/AIDS as young men in the region. Corresponding to the HIV/AIDS situation globally, Arab women are more vulnerable to HIV infection than Arab men. This is due to many factors including lack of negotiating power in their relationships including marriage; cultural practices that limit their choices and power over their own bodies such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), premature marriage and wife inheritance in some countries; and limited access to education among women and girls.
The Arab region has the second lowest Gender Empowerment Measurement (GEM) in the world, reflecting the vulnerable situation women face when it comes to HIV infection and AIDS related stigma. Furthermore, women are often the stewards of family education responsible for inculcating key behaviours within the family. If women are not provided the capacity to support their families in making healthy behavioural choices, then the level of health-vulnerability increases in society as a whole. Greater dialogue and societal partnerships are especially needed in the Arab Region to empower women, where limited health resources, unequal access to education and cultural practices contribute to gender inequality and thus create conditions for great risk among women and men.
INTERVENTION STRATEGY
The initiative's strategy is to create in the Arab region a civic momentum towards committed action limiting women's increasing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS through a mix of capacity development; networking and partnership strengthening; and availing regionally tailored leadership and advocacy materials. It will mobilize key groups of influential social actors to become a part of a gender-sensitive HIV/AIDS response. In particular the initiative targets women NGOs, women religious leaders and faith-based organizations and media professionals.
Four sub- regional training sessions on "Women, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights" for Arab Women's NGOs will mainstream HIV into NGO programming and build advocacy and leadership skills employing UNDP's transformative leadership and development enhancement methodologies that have generated highly effective responses to the epidemic in the region. Sub-regional HIV/AIDS Leadership Advocacy and Mainstreaming trainings for Women's NGOs will be organized in Maghreb (Libya), the Mashrek (Jordan TBC), the Horn of Africa (Yemen), and in the Gulf Countries (Abu Dhabi TBC).
Female religious leaders will contribute to a debate on harmful traditional practices and their religious legitimacy, addressing the link between structural inequalities, violence, gender and increased HIV/AIDS vulnerability. This will result in action plans by and for religious leaders who will act as agents of cultural change, promoting gender equality through values, ethics and transformation of religious norms at the national and local level via the already established CHAHAMA network of faith-based organizations. Additionally a Regional workshop on "Traditional Practices and the Women HIV Situation" in Djibouti will help develop advocacy plans that limit gender and HIV based stigma and discrimination from the community to policy level.
The dates of the workshops are as follows:
28-30 Aug 2007 1st Sub-regional Workshop in Yemen, Sana'a
22-24 Oct 2007 2nd Sub-regional Workshop in Egypt, Cairo
03-05 Nov 2007 3rd Sub-regional Workshop Libya, Tripoli
08-11 Nov 2007 Regional Workshop in Djibouti
25-27 Nov 2007 4th Sub-regional Workshop in UAE, Abu Dhabi