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Association for Women's Rights in
Development
Combatting HIV and Violence Against Women: Women Won't Wait
Women Won't Wait (WWW) is a global campaign by organizations and networks
from the global North and South, that addresses the intersection between
HIV and AIDS and violence against women. The Campaign recently marked its
first anniversary. We interviewed Shamillah Wilson, the Campaign's
Communications Manager about the journey so far.
By Kathambi Kinoti - AWID
AWID: One year after its launch, what successes can Women Won't Wait
celebrate?
SHAMILLAH WILSON: First of all, the Campaign has brought together an
international alliance of women's rights advocates committed to working
collectively and in a coordinated way to advance the intersection of HIV
and AIDS and violence against women and girls. The shared analysis and
agenda developed by the Coalition not only informs and shapes lobbying
internationally, regionally and nationally; it also strengthens and will
continue to shape the work of women's rights advocacy. The campaign has
been launched at the international level, regional level and in several
countries such as Uganda, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Guatemala
to name a few. In Sierra Leone for example, public awareness campaigns and
strategic lobbying have led to the speedy enactment of three bills, in
circulation since 2004" (i) Registration of Customary Marriages and
Divorce, (ii) Intestate Succession, and (iii) Domestic Violence Bills.
These actions have effectively changed the landscape of women's human
rights in Sierra Leone. There are other such examples at the national
level.
In March 2007, the WWW coalition released a report that cited the sexual
violence and coercion that women experience at the hands of their male
partners as a leading factor in the increasing 'feminization' of the AIDS
pandemic. Titled 'Show Us the Money: Is Violence Against Women on the HIV
and AIDS Funding Agenda?',the report noted that while funding for HIV/AIDS
programmes has increased dramatically in recent years, the main donor
agencies have failed to address the link between violence against women and
HIV infection. Funding for programmes aimed at promoting women's rights
and access to reproductive and sexual health services has actually
decreased.
At the global level, following WWW's launch, we have placed the issue of
the intersection of violence against women and girls and HIV and AIDS on
the broader development agenda and donor agenda. A Call to Action to the G8
in June 2007 yielded a commitment to increase targetted support for women
and girls. In addition, WWW has done advocacy and lobbying of bi- and
multi-lateral institutions to ensure accountability and delivery of greater
and more meaningful integration of violence against women and girls in AIDS
responses.
AWID: According to the WWW campaign, women's rights still occupy the
margins of HIV and AIDS strategies and funding, yet 61% of people living
with HIV are women. Why are women'srights concerns not yet at the centre
of policies and programming?
SW: There has been general failure by various institutions that are
responsible for delivery on and access to rights, to ensure that human
rights are accessed through appropriate policy, programmes, resource
commitments, monitoring and evaluation.
State and institutions (bi- and multi-laterals) at the regional and
international level have largely failed to
realize the critical importance of addressing the intersection itself.
State responses and commitments to meeting their obligations is generally
weak, ineffective and uneven with a few examples of situations where strong
and effective policy and practice contexts have been created and developed.
With regard to the intersection between violence against women and HIV and
AIDS, state responses have been even weaker. Essentially, the issues are
addressed separately- separate problems; separate processes; separate
institutions; separate infrastructure.
While international multi lateral agencies have the potential to shape and
influence national states in committing to, mounting and sustaining a policy
and practice response to this intersection, we know that even these
institutions have not properly demonstrated the recognition of the
intersection and its implications for accessing rights.
At the donor level, in terms of resources, the research conducted by the
Show us the Money Campaign, confirms that overall, funding and programming
is deeply inadequate for each element in the analysis. Furthermore, there
are unclear allocations, within current donor frameworks, for work on the
intersection. The difficulty of tracking this spending increases the
complexity of holding donors accountable and of advocating for increased
funding allocations. The trend toward sector wide and basket funding
further increases the difficulty in the tracking of financing for the
intersection. There is also a lack of conceptual clarity on the links and
intersection of HIV and AIDS and violence against women in donor policies
and communication which feeds into a lack of commitment and
policy positions, which fail to account for and address the intersection,
thus increasing women's vulnerability to the twin epidemics.
Finally, civil society as a key institution which influences and shapes
policy and practice, has in the past contributed to the policy vacuum
insofar as the intersection is concerned. The response of civil society to
the twin epidemics has been strong, and yet two separate and parallel
processes. The issue of violence against women has long been a critical
point of entry for the women's movement, feminists and those who are
committed to advancing women's rights. They have managed to shape policy
both at an international, regional and national level where the centrality
of violence against women has been acknowledged and appropriately planned
for. This gain applies even where the issue of implementation and delivery
on these policies and plans has been absent, weak or uneven.
The civil society aspect of the HIV and AIDS sector has been, in a similar
way, instrumental in pushing a progressive rights based approach to HIV and
AIDS. This rights based approach has generally been articulated as a
women's rights issue but the extent to which these organizations and
institutions have been able to apply this understanding of rights as
inclusive of women's rights has been weak and uneven. There has also been
an acknowledgement of violence against women and gender based violence as
having clear and strong links with and to HIV and AIDS.
The commitment to actually address these as intersecting issues has been a
slow process within both movements. The bidirectional link between the two
issues and its implications for policy and practice both internationally
and nationally has been acknowledged and articulated. The implications of
this link for policy and practice both nationally, regionally and
internationally have not been addressed by states and by civil society.
The consequences and risks of this gap have implications for women's rights,
including their right to health and to safety and security.
AWID: WWW emphasizes acting NOW to stop HIV and violence against women.
What are some of the top priority areas that if in the short term were
addressed, would make a significant impact in stopping the spread of HIV
and eliminating violence against women?
SW: Firstly we want the different actors (at the policy, donor and civil
society level) to prominently underscore that violence against women and
girls is a major driver and consequence of HIV and AIDS, reiterating that
violence against women and girls is a human rights crisis, and that the
fight against one epidemic-HIV and AIDS- cannot be won without tackling the
other epidemic -gender-based violence.
Secondly, the most effective strategy to address the intersection of
violence against women and girls and HIV is to significantly increase
resources for gender-sensitive and human rights based prevention,
treatment, care and support- for both epidemics. This needs to address
responses to HIV and AIDS that cover the spectrum of general education,
effective laws and policies and trained health care and legal personnel to
ensure that violence against women and girls are addresses requisite
priority. Linked to this needs to be a clear policy framework that will
provide a means for measuring the work that address violence against women
and girls in HIV budgets, action plans, programming and monitoring and
evaluation processes.
However, resources are not enough, and need to be accompanied by clear
guidelines and policies to ensure that all AIDS prevention, treatment, care
and support interventions integrate community education on zero tolerance
for violence. In addition, the promotion of laws and law enforcement that
prevent and protect women from violence, training for health care personnel
and legal infrastructures, and the availability of post-exposure
prophylaxis, emergency contraception, female condoms and other
female-controlled prevention ALL need to form part of a comprehensive
approach to HIV and AIDS.
AWID: Who are you targetting with the Campaign, and what strategies are you
using to get your message across?
SW: This Campaign focuses on addressing failure by states, donors and by
civil society as well as by key multi and bilateral agencies at a national,
regional and international level.
At the regional and global level, we are tracking the multi- and bi-lateral
agencies to assess how much has changed in resources and policies since the
release of the Show Us the Money Report. We will be using the findings to
do advocacy and lobbying with each agency directly at strategic moments.
In terms of states, each national coalition is responsible for assessing
the most strategic entry points and issues to take up in their context.
The campaign agenda and messaging support this action and provide the
international solidarity if needed.
In terms of civil society, we are using strategic opportunities to work
together with different groups. Our website is one way for people to find
out more about the campaign and allows groups to sign on to receive a
newsletter that informs them of campaign activities and highlights key
areas for collective action.
AWID: What are some of the challenges that the Campaign has faced?
SW: The agenda that the campaign is advocating for is an HIV agenda and we
have to find space to move within established and existing agendas.
Even though we have made some gains in the first year, the question we have
to ask ourselves is whether these gains are not the easiest that our
targeted audiences can accede to. We feel that we have to work harder in
terms of having the specificities of what we are asking for taken on.
AWID: Keeping campaigns by coalitions or networks of organizations going
can sometimes be a challenge, due to the already heavy workloads that
individual organizations have, or for other reasons. How have you addressed
this issue so that the campaign remains alive?
SW: We are lucky in that ActionAid has provided some funding for the
campaign in 2007 and 2008. This has meant that there is a Secretariat who
is responsible for raising more funds to ensure that the campaign retains
autonomous and also that the campaign has the necessary support to achieve
its objectives. The coalition members have been amazing in that they have
been consistently engaged and pro-actively identify areas for moving
forward.
Keeping the momentum going on a campaign is always a challenge. After the
launch of the campaign, it was important for us to find ways to
consistently raise the profile of the Campaign and also to ensure that we
advance the agenda.
We are aware that the different members of the coalition already are quite
engaged in many other important activities, and we have been lucky to have
a committed group who have been able to stay engaged and find ways to make
the links to their own work. It has also been helpful that the members of
the coalition have been engaged in this work already so the work of the
Campaign has just built on this.
As a group we are challenged with ensuring that we build the necessary
infra-structure that enables the work of the Campaign At the same time we
are aware that the Campaign also needs to be taken on at the national and
regional level to address the specificities of challenges faced within
those contexts. I think we consciously try and manage the tension of the
advocacy work at the global and regional level whilst enabling partners or
campaigns at the national levels.
http://www.womenwontwait.org
info@womenwontwait.org
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