HIV and Gender Norms, Alcohol and Gender-Based Violence
Workshop
Organized by African Network for Strategic Communication
in Health and Development
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
August 6, 2007
Honorable Ministers, Excellencies, distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all on behalf of H.E.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the Minister of Health and on my
own behalf, please allow me to welcome you all to Ethiopia.
It is a great honor and privilege to be here with you
at the opening ceremony of this meeting organized just
35 days earlier to our millennium celebration.
This gathering is prepared to look in depth into an
issue of paramount importance our world is facing today
– HIV/AIDS, but more specifically, underlying
social factors that continue to drive HIV transmission
and inhibit care, support and treatment.
In the next three days together, the practicum will
focus on three major factors among others that exacerbate
spread of the pandemic namely alcohol abuse, gender
norms and gender-based violence.
Thus this workshop comes at no better time, as new
HIV infections and AIDS deaths in Africa are on the
rise, yet few communication programs in the region adequately
address the risky behaviors, barriers to services and
poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy.
It is therefore very encouraging to see such a forum
being organized where practitioners come together to
address these issues, share their practical experiences
and insights, and come up with needed concrete strategies
on the way forward. On behalf of the government I would
like to use this opportunity to thank once again AfriComNet
for organizing this important workshop and bringing
diverse category of practitioners and advocates of HIV/AIDS
together to address the HIV pandemic in Africa and also
for choosing Ethiopia to host such an important event.
HIV/AIDS, as we all know, is causing a serious social
and economic damage in our world. This burden is magnified
in the Sub-Saharan Africa which is very tragic and unacceptable.
AIDS is unique in human history in its rapid spread,
extent and the depth of its impact. Fundamentally, this
crisis is not about numbers; it is about human suffering
and our failure to prevent this human catastrophe from
unfolding. When we see at the factors that contribute
to the epidemic there could be a lot but the effects
of alcohol abuse, gender norms and gender-based violence
have had significant impact on HIV prevention, care
and treatment efforts. Hence serious thoughts and collective
efforts are required to ensure that HIV/AIDS communication
programs are designed in such a way that they address
these issues. It is my hope that a few years from now
we will not yet again say that we should have done this,
that or the other. That will not help the millions of
people, especially women, who are infected and affected
by this epidemic and who cannot be here with us today
but expect a lot from us.
In many settings individuals, including very young
people, have easy access to alcohol. Some studies have
proved the link of alcohol consumption to high-risk
behavior leading to sexually transmitted infections
and HIV transmission. Heavy drinking often results in
unprotected casual sex, poor condom use, and unprotected
sex with multiple partners. Alcohol consumption has
been proved to also reduce adherence to drug regimens,
contributes to poor response to HIV therapy, and generally
accelerates HIV disease progression.
The other concern is the unique vulnerability of women.
Over the years, the proportion of females infected with
HIV worldwide grew increasingly so that today nearly
50 percent of adults living with HIV globally are women
and more than half in Africa. Women, especially young
girls between the ages of 15 and 24, are affected by
the AIDS epidemic in unique ways because of longstanding
gender inequalities and multiple vulnerabilities.
Research conducted over the past two decades shows
that there are four fundamental root causes namely economic
vulnerability, violence against women, the persistent
gender gap between boys and girls in education and the
lack of access to a female-controlled methods of prevention.
Some of these vulnerabilities are intertwined and play
a great role on the impact of AIDS on women. By addressing
these causes women will be enabled to use and adopt
the public health services and prevention strategies
that are provided and recommended as part of the AIDS
prevention, care and treatment package.
Violence and the threat of violence dramatically increase
women’s vulnerability to HIV. In many cases, intoxicated
spouses return home and forcefully demand sex. In such
situation, gender-based violence obstructs AIDS prevention
efforts because individuals fear being beaten if, for
example, they seek testing or attempt to negotiate safe
practices such as condom use with partners. As a result,
people who are not yet infected are at risk of infection,
and people already infected may never know their sero-status
and continue to spread the virus.
Now, I would also like to share with you the HIV situation
in Ethiopia and what we are doing to address the problem.
The national prevalence is 2.1% and in urban areas like
Addis Ababa it reaches up to 7.7%. The current estimate
of people living with the virus is 997,000.
To address the epidemic, our Government designed a
strategy to combat HIV/AIDS based on the three pillars
namely; prevention, treatment and care and support.
When the strategic plan of the country was launched
in January 2005 by our Prime minister, the number of
people on free ART was only 900 compared to 95,908 now.
Community conversations are now common and resulting
in the participation of people in addressing the problem.
The number of people who are getting tested is also
increasing from time to time like 2.5 million people
have been tested so far of which 254,843 were tested
positive.
The number of VCT facilities has increased from 658
to 1005 in two years time. Similarly ART sites have
increased from only 3 hospitals in 2005 to 265 hospitals
and health centers currently. Although we have seen
encouraging results we have to act more aggressively
to reach the people in need of the therapy.
The encouraging results have been achieved due to
the concerted efforts of all stakeholders. The support
of the international community in the fight against
HIV/AIDS has been unprecedented and I would like to
recognize and thank all the partners and notably PEPFAR,
the Global Fund and the World Bank.
Ladies and gentlemen the issue at hand is now how
can we increase the access to the services in a sustainable
manner and also try to solve the root causes mentioned
above. So let us give renewed focus to root causes that
have been ignored in the context of HIV for far, far
too long.
Over the next three days, the workshop is expected
to draw practical recommendations and effective communication
strategies that would help to answer some of the key
questions.
In closing, I wish you successful deliberations and
pleasant time during your stay and welcome you all to
the millennium celebration where we promise our nations
better life.
I thank you
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