Hajiya Bilkisu
12 July 2009
Lagos — What would be different if women had greater control of their reproductive and sexual matters? Would the AIDS epidemic as it ravages the world today be as serious if gender inequalities were less pronounced?
How does the empowerment of women and access of women to economic resources and opportunities impact the spread of HIV/AIDS? Kaduna based ABANTU for Development asked these questions and provided statistics in its training manual which shows that 35 million adults were living with HIV, 4million of them in Nigeria. With every sixth African being a Nigerian, the country has the largest number of persons living with AIDS per population after South Africa and India. More than half of these are women! We are all at risk at various levels either as people infected and living positively with the virus, People living with HIV/AIDs (PLWA) or as People Affected by HIV/AIDS (PABA).We are affected because four million Nigerians are infected and 64% of those infected are young people, our investment for the future. Our human resources is being depleted by the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Research has shown the level of awareness of AIDS is quite high but it is sad that this has not translated into behavior change in the people. Behaviour change is important for the prevention of the spread of the epidemic as well as in minimising its impact. Change in behaviour has to focus not only on individual behaviour, but also on collective behaviours, norms, and values of the society.
Facing the Challenge
HIV/AIDS and its gender perspective is therefore an age long concern and several gender focused organisations such as the Society for Women and AIDS in Nigeria SWAN have worked hard at various levels to ensure that gender is mainstreamed into HIV/AIDS prevention projects. Their concern is evidence based because reality has confirmed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is no respecter of any person and everybody is at risk. It is not a new public health issue but it is so important that no country can afford to rest on its oars in its response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. On April 29 2009, a group of concerned organisations participated in a validation conference at the Valencia Hotel Abuja. It was jointly organised by United Nations Fund for Women UNIFEM and a women's rights and gender focused Non Governmental Organisation Women Aids Collective WACOL. The theme of the conference was 'Promoting a Gender Equality and Human Rights Sensitive Policy Environment in the Nigerian HIV/AIDS National Response.' In a press interactive session, Tolupe Lewis-Tamoka, the Country Manager of the United Nations Fund for Women UNIFEM reviewed the country's policy response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The National Strategic Framework
She observed that the major policy was the National Strategic Framework NSF which articulated the Country's response to HIV and AIDS for the period 2005-2009. She stressed that 'the NSF is the product of a national consultative process, involving different stakeholders-government sector ministries, CSOs, organizations of men and women living with HIV, and faith based organizations. The participation of women, their organizations and gender experts contributed to the emergence of one of the best national response framework in Africa, in terms of gender analysis and incorporating strategies and targets.'
Gender and the Strategic framework
Dr Lewis -Tamoka outlined the gender related objectives of the NSF which 'identifies women as a priority group to be targeted by programmes under the framework, including through the use of behavioural change communication (BCC). Objective three of the NSF is to "increase access to gender-sensitive prevention, care, treatment and support services". The strategies for achieving the objective include the improvement of access, and affordability of reproductive health services, and the development of a condom policy and strategies for increasing condom use. The NSF also calls for the promotion and implementation of gender-sensitive community and home-based care services, as well as strengthening of the health sector. Objective four of the NSF commits stakeholders to support non-health sectoral responses including provision of economic empowerment to vulnerable groups, and expansion of education and agricultural sector responses. The legal, cultural and economic factors that contribute to gender inequality in the country need urgent attention if the objectives and targets of the NSF are to be achieved. She said the implementation of the NSF requires a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach the basis of the NSF itself. Implied in this and running through the NSF is the recognition of gender inequality and that empowering women and addressing women's rights concerns as a strategy towards the prevention, control and management of HIV and AIDS needs a multi-sectoral approach.
Incorporating Human Rights into Policies
On the issue of incorporating human rights approach in the NSF Tolupe Lewis observed that Nigeria has several relevant policy documents. She said this provided the basis of the broad-based multi sectoral policy review initiative currently being implemented by UNIFEM with support from the Nigerian AIDS Responsive Fund of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The overall aim of the project is to promote the emergence of a coherent policy environment for the achievement of the human rights-based targets of the NSF. To achieves this; the project is being implemented at the national level and in states - Bauchi, Taraba and Cross Rivers. The project is also working very closely with the National Commission for the Control of AIDS (NACA) the Gender Manager and its Gender Technical Committee to integrate gender equality concerns into the organisation's structure, programme and processes. She said a desk-review of the relevant policy instruments in the health, education, agriculture and the law sectors was conducted, to assess the extent to which they facilitate the implementation of the NSF.
Filling the Policy Gap
The UNIFEM Country said the review process has been able to identify those aspects of the policies that require reform. A broad range of stakeholders have met to interrogate the report and validate it against current realities on ground. The findings and recommendations also form the basis for a national advocacy campaign to promote the reforms that would bring the sector policies in line with the goals of the NSF. The review has identified significant gaps in the responsiveness of the sectoral policies to the gender and human rights objectives of the NSF.
To be cont'd tomorrow
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