Strategy for Prevention
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Attention to key cross-cutting issues can
help improve the environment for action.
Necessary aspects of HIV prevention measures
include gender perspectives, data on population
and development concerns, advocacy
and partnerships, and capacity-building
both within and outside UNFPA.
1. Mainstreaming gender concerns
Men, like this Pakistani father with his children, are encouraged to take responsibility for protecting themselves,
their partners and the well-being of their families by preventing the spread of HIV through safe and responsible
sexual behaviour. | |
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Because more than 75 per cent of HIV infections
are transmitted through sexual relations
between women and men, an awareness of
the forces affecting these relations is a basic
requirement when planning interventions.
Gender dynamics are understood as the different
roles, expectations, identities, needs,
opportunities and obstacles that society
assigns to women and men based on sex.
Women often are not equal with men as they
enter into sexual relations. Many women are
made vulnerable to infection as a consequence
of powerlessness, discrimination, violence and
poverty. UNFPA supports programmes
that provide reproductive health information
and services and advance the right of women
to exercise control over their lives and their
sexuality. Women, especially young women,
need to be empowered to say NO to unsafe
sex, to abstain from sex and to avoid the risk
of infection.
UNFPA-supported programmes also reach
out to boys and men, improving access to
information, condoms, treatment for STIs
and other services to help them take care of
their own health and to support responsible
sexual behaviour. Community leaders in
particular are calling on men to take more
responsibility for stopping the outbreak and
protecting their partners and themselves.
They are discussing the need for men to be
good role models for boys by respecting their
wives as partners and educating their daughters.
- Violence against women has escalated
following armed conflict in Burundi,
increasing risks of HIV infection and
unwanted pregnancy. UNFPA is supporting
the efforts of several local partners
to increase access to reproductive health
services, establish community programmes
addressing violence against women, mount
radio and television awareness-raising
campaigns, assess women’s situations
and document their wishes, and sensitize
health workers.
- In Ethiopia, a study on HIV/AIDS and
gender was initiated by UNFPA and the
International Labour Organization (ILO)
through the UNAIDS Technical Working
Group. The study aims to make visible the
links between gender inequities and the
spread of HIV/AIDS and to identify tools
for intervention.
- A training module on HIV/AIDS was
included in the manual, Gender
Mainstreaming in Reproductive Health:
Services and Health Programme Management,
developed with UNFPA support for use in
Algeria, Morocco and the Occupied
Palestinian Territory.
- In Paraguay, 15,000 men in the armed
forces have participated in workshops on
sexual and reproductive health and gender
equity. Services and sensitization are being
integrated within military training academies
and the military health system, with
UNFPA support.
- Young men from indigenous communities
in Guatemala have volunteered for
training in HIV prevention, including
the distribution and correct and consistent
use of condoms. The migration of men
from rural to urban areas for work has
led to increased risk of infection for
their partners.
- Government representatives and AIDS
focal points in various ministries were
invited to examine the National AIDS
Plan in terms of gender issues at a
UNFPA-sponsored gender and
HIV/AIDS workshop in Mozambique.
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