Background
Poverty is both a cause and an effect of HIV and AIDS. The factors that make people vulnerable to poverty and AIDS are similar, and include violations of people’s basic rights to health care, to live free from violence, and to education, among other human rights violations. Racism and other forms of discrimination that deny people their basic rights increase vulnerability to HIV. Gender inequalities and harmful traditions and laws that discriminate against women and young girls make them more likely to be infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
All these factors are driving the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. As UNAIDS (Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS) Executive Director Peter Piot puts it, "to reach universal access to HIV prevention and treatment care and support, we need to pay attention to the drivers."
Many of these and other factors driving the global HIV and AIDS pandemic intersect in southern Africa, which accounts for almost one-third of all new infections. For example, the country of South Africa, where more than 18 percent of people aged 15-49 are infected, has the most people in the world living with HIV and AIDS: 5.5 million (in 2007).
In this region the gender dimension of the crisis is profound. In some societies, women are denied the right to choose to abstain from sex or insist on condom use. Discrimination and poverty push them into harmful relationships and make them more vulnerable.
UNAIDS estimates in its "2007 AIDS Epidemic Update" that for 15-24-year olds in South Africa, 90 percent of new infections are females. Women between 20 and 29 are six times more likely to be infected with HIV than men. This pattern is also seen in other countries in southern Africa. This is where Oxfam America is concentrating its work on HIV and AIDS.
Eliminating poverty requires eliminating inequality and the other drivers that also contribute to the HIV and AIDS crisis. Providing services for infected and affected people is not enough. These efforts must be matched with sound policies and laws that will end discrimination against women and minorities, education that empowers all citizens to understand and defend their rights and earn a decent living, and changes in ideas and beliefs that will end the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS and encourage equality between men and women.
Women and girls disproportionately affected
Poverty and the HIV/AIDS crisis are converging with deadly results. Lack of education and ignorance about the disease, a high percentage of female-headed households with few reliable sources of income, lack of jobs, poor access to medical care, and many other manifestations of poverty all put women, the poorest members of southern African society, at a greater risk to exposure to HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS crisis hits women the hardest.
Gender inequality
Traditions that are often deeply rooted in culture and society constrain opportunities for women in southern Africa and increase poverty. Women are relegated to household responsibilities, denied education, and struggle to find decent jobs. There is a high rate of female-headed households in southern Africa, and women are routinely called upon to care for sick family members in addition to securing food and income. The epidemic imposes high costs for health care and burial expenses, a further drain on women-headed, low-income households.
In some countries, women are subjected to unfair legal standards for divorce and lack the right to inherit property. Some are even denied the rights of the majority—they are treated as children before the law. This diminishes their power to control relationships with men and their sexual activity.
African society has strong traditions. Some aspects of culture, religious beliefs, and traditional practices make women more vulnerable to infection and discourage them from learning about and defending their rights and demanding social change.
Domestic and sexual violence
Poverty and discrimination against women also intersect when women are the victims of violence. The lower social status of women and girls makes them easy targets for rape and limits their ability to cope with violent households. The death of one or both parents can be catastrophic for their children—girls are particularly vulnerable to exploitative sexual relationships. Women and young girls pushed into relationships built on unequal power are hard pressed to negotiate their sexual activity. They are prone to abuse, exploitation, and HIV infection.
As long as women are considered inferior and society assigns them lesser rights and allows them to be abused and discriminated against, they will continue to suffer the brunt of HIV/AIDS.
