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Gender and HIV/AIDS: An Analysis of Zimbabwe's National Policies and Programs on HIV/AIDS/STIs
Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN)
December 12, 2002

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Executive Summary
Women and men, girls and boys have experienced the HIV/AIDS epidemic very differently. The epidemic has exposed the deeply ingrained gender inequalities and imbalances of our societies and for as long as they shape our existence, these gender inequalities will provide fertile turf for HIV/AIDS to fester. Yet the relationship between gender, HIV/AIDS and poverty has not always been understood in a way that informs policy and encourages the adoption and implementation of practical strategies that empower communities to actively and effectively respond to the very many and diverse impacts the epidemic has had on females and males within households, communities and societies.

Where our collective responses needed to be guided by a robust, large scale, multi-sector strategy that incorporated the diverse needs and concerns of the most marginalized and deprived groups of women and men; denial, stigma, blame, fear and selfishness have largely been the order of the day.

According to UNAIDS out of the 28 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa infected with HIV/AIDS, 58% are female and 42% are male. For different reasons and in different ways, young women and men in the15-24 age have been drawn into the vast number of those living with HIV and now account for up to half of all new infections worldwide. A UNICEF study estimates that of the 8.6 million young people in Africa infected with HIV/AIDS, two thirds are female.

Why, after 20 years of the epidemic, do infection rates continue to rise? Why are new infections in groups previously thought to be "AIDS free" such as the youth, or "AIDS safe" such as married women, emerging at a worrying rate? The number of women and girls infected with HIV has now surpassed the number of men and the oppression and subjugation of women remains real.

A number of factors make women more vulnerable to infection than men. Biological and physiological reasons are the least avoidable. Women are more likely to suffer lesions during sexual intercourse than men, creating a direct route for infection. The fact that seminal fluid is deposited in the female body also makes women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

Women are also put at risk by a multitude of social factors that prevail in our patriarchal societies; these include the greater economic deprivation of women, customary norms that prevent women from being able to negotiate safe sex, the use of condoms and faithful behaviour. Women and girls continue to carry the disproportionate burden of nursing the sick through home-based care work. Research has also shown that there are certain behaviours, such as unprotected sex and multiple partners that expose women to a high risk of infection.

This is not new knowledge, yet our policies lag behind in responding to the realities of the gender inequalities we daily face.

Released on December 1, 2002, World AIDS Day, this report is particularly concerned with the extent to which the HIV/AIDS policies, namely the National HIV/AIDS Policy, the National AIDS Council of Zimbabwe Act [CHAPTER 15:14] and the National AIDS Trust Fund, that have been adopted by the Government of Zimbabwe, pay attention to gender equity and equality. It seeks to provide policy makers, researchers, academics, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, the media, activists and other groups and individuals concerned with Gender and HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe with an overview of the three key policy documents that provide the operational blueprint for the management of HIV/AIDS.

This analysis outlines the gender imbalances in the existing policies on HIV/AIDS. Where appropriate, each chapter offers recommendations for addressing the identified gender gaps. The recommendations are aimed at encouraging concerted, collective, fair, ethical and gender responsive action and commitment to the management of HIV/AIDS. Balancing the power relations between women and men is a crucial aspect of our overall response mechanism to HIV/AIDS, as is the need to address the other socio-economic, racial and political inequalities that have, in the face of HIV/AIDS, silenced the very necessary discussions about returning a sense of value, of worth to human life, be it female or male.

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