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Dear Delawit Aklilu and Nadia Rasheed I Am Writing to You

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Dear Delawit Aklilu and Nadia Rasheed I Am Writing to You Dear Delawit Aklilu and Nadia Rasheed I am writing to you on behalf of the Women Won’t Wait campaign, and we thank you for your effort to develop these guidelines. We are pleased that UNDP is interested in ensuring that gender equality commitments and objectives are integrated in AIDS response at the national level. We hope this will mark a concerted move from policy rhetoric on the feminization of the HIV epidemic to action. We are also keen on working with UNDP on this and other initiatives to integrate gender equality and women’s rights in the global AIDS response. We are aware that there are other guidelines to integrate gender equality and women’s rights, however, we believe that every effort must be made to make these guidelines as practical and user-friendly as possible. The Women Won’t Wait campaign has therefore provided overarching as well as specific comments on the guidelines. 1. We strongly recommend that the guidelines include definitions of “gender equality and equity” under the assumption that these guidelines will be provided to many institutions for whom such definitions will be essential. We believe that these definitions must reflect existing commitments to human rights and gender equality. They must also specifically and concretely point to a range issues that increase women’s and girls’ risk to HIV and the epidemic’s disproportionate impact on women and girls. In particular, the guidelines must explain how women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender based violence, women’s economic and political disempowerment, etc, intersect with the HIV epidemic. 2. We understand why this guidance note does not attempt to cover specific thematic areas of sector-specific responses. However, it would be useful – if not imperative – that a resource section be complied to supplement the guidelines that gives direction toward these. It might also be useful to map out what kind of guidance exist that provides information by theme or sector. We believe this mapping exercise may also identify some important gaps that require quick attention. 3. As we read the guidelines, we are concerned that the needs and rights of women and girls are collapsed with those of men and boys. If these guidelines are meant to ensure a gender sensitive and transformative response to the feminisation of the epidemic, there needs to be a clear and consistent acknowledgment of the ways that women and girls face differential risks and impacts than men and boys. Indeed, it is important to note that all people – women and men, girls and boys – are affected by gender dynamics, but that gender inequality disproportionately harms women and girls. Without this clarification the purpose of these guidelines loses some of its meaning. It is equally essential to provide specific and illustrative information about the “gender-specific impacts” of HIV on women, girls, men and boys. We are recommend that this guidance be provided with examples of gender specific vulnerabilities and risks to HIV infection, impacts of HIV services, etc. 4. We note with alarm that there are very few specific references to rights promotion and rights protection, and we know that human rights perspective is critical to attaining gender equality and equity, or indeed to ensuring a gender transformative response to HIV. It would also be important to ensure the relationship of gender equality to the application of human rights based approach is made to clarify that they are compatible and should not be handled as distinct issues. 5. In general, there is a lack of the kind of detail that each of the stakeholders will need in order to respond effectively and consistently to the recommendations. Experience shows us that gender integration is most effective when there is specific guidance given on the ‘hows’; and done so across the spectrum of programming – analysis, programme design, monitoring and evaluation, etc. We think it will also be useful to clarify up front that programs are needed which directly address gender equality and equity in the context of HIV but that it is also imperative that attention to gender issues be included in HIV programming more generally. In order to ensure that attention to gender is both integrated and given distinct space, attention and resources. We are also keen to know what the next steps are with regard to the guidelines. Specifically, are there plans to follow up the release and dissemination of these guidelines to ensure they are adopted? In conclusion, we believe at the current juncture where the majority of those infected and affected by HIV&AIDS are women, it is critical that the core business of HIV&AIDS responses is targeted at addressing those issues that make women vulnerable and impact on their human rights. We hope these guidelines will help put women’s rights at the center of all HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes. The Women Won’t Wait campaign is eager to work with you and we volunteer to input in to any other mechanisms to integrate women’s rights and gender equality. Yours truly, (for the Women Won’t Wait campaign) Neelanjana Mukhia International Women’s Rights Policy and Campaign Coordinator ActionAid Women Won’t Wait seeks to accelerate effective responses to the linkages of violence against all women and girls and the spread of HIV by tracking and, where necessary, calling for changes in the policies, programming and funding streams of national governments and international multilateral and bilateral donor and technical agencies. The Women Won’t Wait campaign has released a report: “Show Us the Money: is violence against women on the HIV&AIDS donor agenda?” that analyses the policies, programming and funding patterns of the four largest public donors to HIV&AIDS. The report (available at www.womenwontwait.org ) is the first step in an effort by this coalition to monitor the policies, programmes, and funding streams of international agencies and national governments, and to hold these agencies accountable to basic health and human rights objectives. For more information about the Women Won’t Wait campaign, please contact: [email protected] Members of the “Women Won’t Wait – End HIV and Violence Against Women. Now.” campaign: Action Aid; African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET); Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID); Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL); Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE); Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM); GESTOS-Soropositividade, Comunicação & Gênero; International Community of Women Living with HIV&AIDS Southern Africa (ICW- Southern Africa); International Women’s AIDS Caucus; International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC); Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network; Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Program on International Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; SANGRAM; United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM); VAMP; and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA). .
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