The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organisation headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. SADC hosted a side event at CSW68 on 15 March 2024 to discuss socio-economic empowerment policies for HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women.
During the event, Nazneen Damji from UN Women stated that it is crucial to build resilience among adolescent girls to address the issue of HIV and the stigma surrounding it. She said that there is a need to understand why young women are vulnerable to HIV and that social and economic empowerment is key as girls aged between 15 and 24 are less likely to be in education or employment than men. This puts them at further risk of contracting the HIV virus.
Best Practice and Lessons Learned
Following this, the Minister for Women’s Affairs in Zimbabwe, The Honorable Monica Mutsvangwa, stressed the importance of learning from experience and sharing lessons learned. In this portion of the event, Monica stressed that we must draw from consensus strategies to reduce risk and vulnerability, especially as poverty and inequality remain the driving forces of HIV in Africa. Furthermore, other complex structural drivers interact here, such as unequal powerful relationships, social isolation and limited access to education, all of which increase the risk of HIV vulnerability of young women. These factors deprive women and girls of being able to make decisions regarding their lives, hampering their ability to address the issue. Monica stated that out of 17 million (44% of) people living with HIV, six million are yet to be given lifesaving treatment.
Sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) were discussed in relation to women’s empowerment. There is a need to revisit prevention strategies tailored for young women and girls and this needs to go hand in hand with SRHR. For instance, sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment and trafficking prevention measures must be implemented to protect all women and girls.
Some provisions are in place, but there is an urgent need to ensure proper implementation. Alongside this, gender-based violence and HIV must be combatted by doubling our efforts to ensure women’s economic empowerment. We must highlight practical actions to address gender-based violence, HIV, AIDS and alcohol and drug abuse and we must work collectively together to provide interventions. The global community is called upon to double its efforts in protecting and empowering young women and girls, including multilateral partners, civil society organisations and public and private partnerships.
HIV and Economic Empowerment
Tumie Komanyane, a development practitioner from the Netherlands, said there must be a call to accelerate action to end AIDS by 2030 as it is a public health threat. The Netherlands supports six regional programmes which includes economic empowerment through education. Tumie said that there is an increased risk of HIV transmission in young women and girls; however, by deploying decisive action and investment we can create economic empowerment, equal opportunities and access to decision making skills. Tumie urged partners to advance forward in making this happen and that we should harness the power of collaboration so that every individual, regardless of their socio-economic background can thrive in a HIV free world.
A panel discussion then ensued and specific topics were raised. Speakers used their own knowledge and experience to provide informed answers.
Panel Discussion:
Q: From your knowledge of young women’s lived experiences, your views on economic injustice, how does this impact women and girls’ resilience?
Activist Catherine Nyambura answered this question. She said that patriarchal norms and attitudes continue to perpetuate and that in times of crisis such as Covid-19 vulnerabilities are amplified. Where there is a lack of economic opportunities the risk of experiencing violence is increased. Similarly, no access to education or leaving school early makes employment difficult. Where there is an absence of economic opportunities the risk of experiencing violence rises.
Countries are not investing in health systems, meaning that adolescent girls subsidise this gap by doing unpaid care work. Girls undertaking this work need to be given compensation through responsive systems and policies. Disruptions in supply chains also add to the complexity of the situation and compound intersectional vulnerabilities, meaning that solutions cannot be simplistic. In other words, Local, national and international policies and programmes need to recognise the complexities. There is a need to ensure that solutions to transform society are participatory, involving women and girls directly.
Q: In your view, what are practical ways different actors can tackle some of these issues?
Tumie Komanyane responded, referring to a project which has been implemented across seven countries across Africa, supporting almost 30,000 young women and girls.
Short-term projects often lack impact and need to be more tangible. A six-year project targeting women aged 16 to 24 is being extended to include those aged up to 29, but what happens to participants once they age beyond this? It is vital that we help women and girls to build income generating skills and provide to enable them to access economic empowerment opportunities.
Governments also need to take ownership of programmes. Development needs to be done differently and health spaces should be youth friendly. Bilateral commitments need to include discussions on health as well as trade. Young women and girls need to be included in these spaces and at other bilateral opportunities. Ministers should be encouraged to follow programmes in their communities to help scale projects up rather than duplicating work. Core funding for HIV must be increased as funding is currently being lost at an alarming rate.
Q: What can government bodies do to respond to issues, challenges and solutions?
Dr Lamboly Kumboniki responded. Dr Kumboniki said that HIV is not just a social issue. In the last 20 years progress had been made by putting over 80% of people who are HIV positive in Southern African regions on treatment. However, 400,000 new infections are reported yearly in the region. Support for member states requires policy development working with civil society to understand the dynamics and then create policies.
SADC has created a Protocol on Gender, a gender strategy to eliminate gender-based violence. Policies at regional levels are in place but work with governments must continue to create sustainability and access to budgets for resources and accessibility to education needs to be enhanced so that treatment continues beyond 2030. Advocacy in the health sector is needed to increase domestic resource mobilisation.
Only 40% of young people are knowledgeable about HIV in SADC so they need to be educated and involved in these programmes so that understanding of the disease can be increased.
Q: Please share, in context of polycrises, what is the role of the UN and other partners to address structural inequalities, especially economic insecurity?
Anne Githuku Shongwe, Regional Director for UNAIDS Southern Africa responded.
She said, “The last mile is the most difficult.” Making progress by putting people on treatment plans is a healthy response and the easy thing to do. What is more complex to achieve is overcoming structural challenges. Defeating gender-based violence involves changing social norms that persist in societies and dealing with discrimination. In 2021 a Global Strategy on how to end AIDS focused on ending inequalities and this also means focusing on prevention.
There are some intersectional inequalities, many young girls and women would rather have HIV than an unwanted pregnancy even though some people living with AIDS did not survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Economic challenges and food security often drive transactional sex.
We have to consider all 11 UN agencies and government partners in creating programmes and include matters of gender, health, justice, punitive laws, finance and work with ministers from the agricultural trade.
Conclusion
To conclude, the need for multifaceted approaches toward HIV prevention among women and girls was stressed throughout this event, with calls for more direct involvement and participation of affected individuals and communities being paramount. Proposed approaches encompassed measures of socioeconomic empowerment, access to education, sexual and reproductive health rights, as well as efforts to combat gender based violence. Young girls need information on child sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive health at school to help educate them. Plus, the continuing stigma in public health services needs to be addressed.
By fostering collaboration among governments, UN agencies, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders, we can strive towards creating a world where every individual affected directly or indirectly by HIV can thrive, regardless of socio-economic background.