Implementing Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and ... - ICRW

FINDINGS
The research team reviewed all program descriptions to identify lessons for program and policy
audiences, such as:
• How multiple gender strategies were employed together (see Appendix 4 for a summary table)
• Gaps in programmatic efforts
• Similar and dissimilar approaches, experiences, and lessons across programs
Below, some of the common themes and patterns among the programs are discussed, exploring why
and how certain strategies, in combination, may hold promise for reducing gender-related
vulnerabilities to HIV. These findings relate to how people are integrating gender strategies, how the
four specific gender strategies are being used and are working, and how people are learning from
and sharing their experiences toward strengthening programs and expanding successes.
INTEGRATING GENDER STRATEGIES
1. Many organizations with HIV programming have begun integrating multiple gender
strategies. The number and variety of programs we were able to identify for the compendium
greatly exceeded expectations. As a result, the programs here represent an array of approaches,
target populations, and size. Programs use a wide range of techniques to integrate gender
strategies, including individualized counseling, group workshops, live theater, television and radio
serial drama, community mobilization, peer education, mentorship, income generation, and
clinical services, among others. These programs also serve a great diversity of populations,
including migrant girls, boys’ soccer teams, rape survivors, orphans and other vulnerable
children, businesswomen, truck drivers, pregnant women, mothers living with HIV, and women
and men at large.
The compendium also features programs of different sizes. Large programs operate nationwide
and are coordinated by international organizations, such as the Tanzania Marketing and
Communications for AIDS, Reproductive Health, Child Survival and Infectious Diseases Project
(T-MARC) program, which works with Tanzanian businesses to develop or expand markets for
health products, uses campaigns to address male norms and reproductive health issues, and
provides grants to women involved in transactional sex and sex work. Medium-size programs are
cross-district or provincial in scope and work on a range of issues and sectors. For example,
Kenya’s Engendering Equality program works in 24 project sites in six districts, and helps
program beneficiaries access health and other information through education materials and
outreach activities, supports women starting small businesses, and teaches skills to improve
household food security. Similarly, Côte d’Ivoire’s Operation Haute Protection (OHP) has reached
nearly 500,000 uniformed services personnel and their families through behavioral change
communication, HIV counseling and testing, palliative care, peer education, and other activities.
Small district- or community-level programs work in a limited number of communities or with
select target groups, and often lack visibility despite providing innovative services. Nigeria’s
Comprehensive Sexuality, Family Life, and HIV/AIDS Education program, for example, provides a
three-year intensive curriculum on HIV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and sexuality
and life skills to adolescent girls in four centers.
Funding sources for the programs featured in this compendium are also diverse and include
national AIDS control commissions within the countries themselves as well as private foundations
and international bilateral and multilateral agencies. Twelve of the 31 programs receive funding
from PEPFAR. These include large-scale programs such as the multicountry Male Norms
Initiative, medium-scale programs such as the Uganda HIV and AIDS Counseling Services
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