UNAIDS partners with UNIFEM

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UNAIDS partners with UNIFEM to halt spread of HIV/AIDS among

women and girls

UNAIDS PARTNERS WITH UNIFEM TO HALT SPREAD OF

HIV/AIDS AMONG WOMEN AND GIRLS

- Women Constitute 47% of the 34.7 million adults living with

HIV/AIDS -

United Nations, New York - The UN Development Fund for Women

(UNIFEM) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will

sign a cooperation agreement today in a move to address the

alarming spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls. This new

partnership takes place as governments end week-long

deliberations leading up to the June 25 Special Session of the

General Assembly on HIV/AIDS. The agreement will help to

strengthen the UN global response to the epidemic.

While the disease itself is a health issue, the epidemic is a gender

issue. According to the UNAIDS June 2000 report, women

constitute 47% of the 34.7 million adults living with HIV/AIDS

worldwide. If women had control over their bodies and were able to

negotiate safe sex, the disease might not have reached such vast

proportions. For instance, a Zambian study found that less than

25% of women believe that a married woman can refuse to have

sex with her husband and only 11% thought they could ask their

husband to use a condom.

" Gender inequality is at the heart of the epidemic, which today is

our biggest threat to development, " said Noeleen Heyzer,

Executive Director for UNIFEM. " We must address power

imbalances in every single policy, strategy and programme related

to prevention, treatment and care, if we seriously want to tackle

this global challenge. It is not simply a matter of justice and

fairness. In this case, gender inequality is fatal. "

It is estimated that 55% of all HIV positive adults in Sub-Saharan

Africa are women. Teenage girls are infected at a rate 5 times

greater than their male counterparts. By the mid 1990s, more than

25% of sex workers in Indian cities had tested positive for HIV. In

Mumbai, the prevalence rate among sex workers had reached 71%

in 1997.

" The proportion of women living with HIV/AIDS has risen steadily in

recent years, " said Dr Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

" Today, young women in the developing world are twice as likely to

be infected as men. We therefore warmly welcome this partnership

with UNIFEM to help ensure that AIDS interventions and services

fully meet the very specific and pressing needs of women and

girls. "

As part of the new agreement, UNIFEM and UNAIDS will work

together to raise awareness about the role of power imbalances

between women and men and the role of gender relations in HIV

transmission. The organizations will also investigate the impact of

HIV/AIDS on both infected and affected women; the added burden

of care imposed on women and girls; and the inequality in access

to prevention, treatment, care and support.

The organizations will also jointly develop gender-sensitive training

manuals for peacekeepers and will work with women's groups in

conflict areas to support their involvement in HIV/AIDS programs

within the context of peacebuilding, peacekeeping and

humanitarian assistance.

The cooperation agreement is intended to formalize the relationship

between UNIFEM and UNAIDS. For the past 4 years, the

organizations have collaborated to develop community-based

research initiatives to stem the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Interviews

with HIV positive women in India, for example, revealed that despite

public information campaigns, women only learned about the

importance of condom use after they had become infected. Public

health officials and AIDS organizations are using these research

findings to target campaigns more effectively.

For more information, visit http://www.unifem.undp.org or

http://www.unaids.org _________________________________________________________

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