piaf calls for more women to fight hiv.aids

PIAF Calls For More Women To Lead Response

More women need to be given responsibility – and support – in responding to the realities and hardships of HIV and AIDS in the pacific region, says the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation.

“It is women who suffer the highest infection rates, face the greatest economic losses and struggle against huge gender and social inequalities,” says Maire Bopp, PIAF Chief Executive Officer.

Women and girls make up 50 percent of reported HIV/AIDS cases across the globe reports the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Young women, aged 15-24 years, are most at risk and are three times more likely to be infected that young men of the same age.

In the Pacific Islands region, 45 percent of reported HIV/AIDS cases are women or girls, and in some countries women outnumber the men as those living with the virus. Women also account for the fastest increase in infection rates as HIV becomes most commonly transmitted through heterosexual relations.

“Despite these realities, it is men who make most of the decisions affecting HIV responses,” says Bopp.

PIAF is calling for gender balance to be made a priority at senior levels of regional health programs.

“It may be a question of capacity, a limited number of Pacific women with limited qualifications, so let’s address that,” says Bopp.

Only by increasing the number of women at the top of regional HIV responses will policy begin to reflect and support global objectives for women, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) signed in 2000. MDGs call for combating the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

“There is a regional theme set by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community which says it all: when you include women, you double the power in the decision-making process.”

“Without women, HIV policy is only half as effective,” says Bopp.

PIAF says that much progress has been made by dozens of local, national, regional and international agencies in raising awareness on the unique threats faced by the Pacific Islands in confronting HIV and treating AIDS. Early steps towards care and treatment are also beginning to grow regionally, if not nationally.

“We can not lose momentum now. Women must be brought into decision-making processes in greater numbers and higher levels, or we risk not effectively meeting our targets for 2015, now less than a decade away.”

Contributions by women show up strongly in national economic indicators, says Bopp.

Countries who fail to support women or restrict their development also fail to recognize simple mathematics – that women make up half the population of any nation.

We call on women leaders to step up to this challenge to help protect and care for our women and children across the Pacific Islands region.