UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 8The GCWA provided funds to UNAIDS Papua New Guinea to run a series of workshops inselected provinces to learn more about women’s concerns about development, HIV andgender based violence, and to help them devise ways to address these issues. The GCWAalso funded the production of a training manual.219“Slowly, things are changing”, noted Nii-K, “this summer, there was a case where a senior bureaucratwas actually jailed for ten years for raping his sister-in-law. Gradually, you’re beginning tosee issues relating to women and the way they have been dealt with in the law slowly coming upin the newspapers. It’s a first little step, but at least it’s a step in the right direction”.Chinese migrant workerswaiting at a station.Prevention programmesneed to focus on selectedcommunities such asmigrant workers.ILO/UNAIDS/J.MaillardIt is too early to see what results the GCWA will bring. Undoubtedly it is important to bringtogether all the players but, at country level, far more work is needed to protect women frominfection and support those who are living with HIV or who are caring for sick relatives andorphans. The efforts of UNFPA and others to integrate AIDS into reproductive health servicesis an important contribution, but this needs to be done on a much larger scale. Womenfacing violence need refuge, and governments need to legislate for women’s property andinheritance rights.Women who are living with HIV tend to be more stigmatized than men. This explains theirreluctance to be tested, including when pregnant. Most countries (82%) have a policy inplace to ensure women’s and men’s equal access to prevention and care. In reality, however,social, legal and economic factors impede women’s ready access to vital services 15 .Obaid commented: “We need to understandcultures in order for us to understandhow to work with communities and peoplenot only at the national level but also atthe community level. We need to supportthem, through their own community-basedsystems, so that they would be empoweredto take care of themselves, to advocate forprevention, to insist on reproductive healthand HIV services that are available, accessibleand affordable, and to lead in fightingstigma and discrimination”.As Piot said at the 2007 launch of the GCWA’snew Agenda for Action, “the ultimatecriterion to judge all AIDS programmes is‘Does this work for women and girls?’”15United Nations (2007). The Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: Five Years Later. Report of theSecretary-General. United Nations, Geneva.