[afro-nets] Kofi Annan on AIDS

[Edward C Green <EGreendc@aol.com>]

Kofi Annan on AIDS
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Dear AFRO-NETS

We have been hearing a lot of ABC-bashing lately.

In the speech spliced in below, no less a figure than Kofi Annan
says:
"That is why many mainstream prevention strategies are unten-
able, for example those based exclusively on the 'ABC' approach
- "abstain, be faithful, use a condom."

So, ABC is untenable for women! I wonder who wrote this speech.
I think we know.

Imagine calling ABC a mainstream prevention strategy! In fact
it's a radical departure from business-a-usual for the past 20
years. Its condom and pills PLUS risk avoidance. It goes beyond
drugs and medical devices to include dealing with sexual behav-
ior itself. It goes beyond mere technology. Should we putting
ALL our hopes and faith in technology?

ABC hasn't even really been tried yet, outside of Uganda, Sene-
gal and a few other places. USAID and PEPFAR will pioneer ABC on
a large scale. And there is every reason to expect that a
broader approach will work better than a narrower approach.

I agree with Annan that women should be empowered. Of course!
But its absurd to say this is incompatible with ABC. Uganda did
both, it promoted ABC and women's empowerment. And the rest is
history.

The Annan speech follows.

International Women's Day - 8 March

Subject: SECRETARY-GENERAL HAILS HEROIC WOMEN LEADING FIGHT IN
HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

SECRETARY-GENERAL HAILS HEROIC WOMEN LEADING FIGHT IN HIV/AIDS
EPIDEMIC, SAYS THEIR FURTHER EMPOWERMENT KEY TO GLOBAL RESPONSE,
IN WOMEN'S DAY MESSAGE

Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message on Interna-
tional Women's Day, which is observed 8 March:

"As we mark this year's International Women's Day, we look at
the devastating toll the global HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking on
women, and the critical role of women in fighting AIDS.

At the beginning, many people thought of AIDS as a disease
striking mainly at men. Even a decade ago, statistics indicated
that women were less affected. But a terrifying pattern has
since emerged. All over the world, women are increasingly bear-
ing the brunt of the epidemic. Today, in sub-Saharan Africa,
more than half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. In-
fection rates in young African women are far higher than in
young men. In the world as a whole, at least half of those newly
infected are women, and among people younger than 24, girls and
young women now make up nearly two thirds of those living with
HIV. If these rates of infection continue, women will soon be-
come the majority of the global total of people infected.

As AIDS strikes at the lifeline of society that women represent,
a vicious cycle develops. Poor women are becoming even less eco-
nomically secure as a result of AIDS, often deprived of rights
to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate health ser-
vices. In rural areas, AIDS has caused the collapse of coping
systems that for centuries have helped women to feed their fami-
lies during times of drought and famine -- leading in turn to
family break-ups, migration, and yet greater risk of HIV infec-
tion. As AIDS forces girls to drop out of school -- whether they
are forced to take care of a sick relative, run the household,
or help support the family -- they fall deeper into poverty.
Their own children in turn are less likely to attend school --
and more likely to become infected. Thus, society pays many
times over the deadly price of the impact on women of AIDS.

Why, then, are women -- usually not the ones with the most sex-
ual partners outside marriage, or more likely than men to be in-
jecting drug users -- more vulnerable to infection? Usually, be-
cause society's inequalities puts them at risk. There are many
factors, including poverty, abuse and violence, lack of informa-
tion, coercion by older men, and men having several partners.
That is why many mainstream prevention strategies are untenable,
for example those based exclusively on the 'ABC' approach --
"abstain, be faithful, use a condom". Where sexual violence is
widespread, abstinence or insisting on condom use is not a real-
istic option for women and girls. Nor does marriage always pro-
vide the answer. In many parts of the developing world, the ma-
jority of women will be married by age 20, and have higher rates
of HIV than their unmarried, sexually active peers -- often be-
cause their husbands have several partners.

What is needed is positive, concrete change that will give more
power and confidence to women and girls, and transform relations
between women and men at all levels of society.

Change that will strengthen legal protection of women's property
and inheritance rights, and ensure they have full access to pre-
vention options -- including microbicides and female condoms.

Change that makes men assume their responsibility -- whether en-
suring their daughters get an education; abstaining from sexual
behaviour that puts others at risk; forgoing relations with
girls and very young women; or understanding that when it comes
to violence against women, there are no grounds for tolerance
and no tolerable excuses.

That is why, last month, UNAIDS launched a Global Coalition on
Women and AIDS as an effort to ensure that the empowerment of
women is at the centre of the response, and to build on the
critical role that women already play in the fight against
HIV/AIDS worldwide. In most countries and communities I have
visited around the world, it is women who have been the most ac-
tive and effective advocates and activists in the fight against
AIDS. Everywhere that the epidemic is taking a severe toll,
there are heroic women's groups and cooperatives doing remark-
able work on prevention and care. Supporting these women, and
encouraging others to follow their example, must be our strategy
for the future. It is among them that the real heroes of this
war are to be found. It is our job to furnish them with
strength, resources and hope."

--
Edward C Green
Supporter of Comprehensive AIDS Prevention
mailto:EGreendc@aol.com