Responding to the HIV/AIDS Crisis in Southern Africa

Posted: 17 June 2005

Women are at the center of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. Oxfam is supporting the work of organizations to reduce the vulnerability of women through changing cultural practices and improving policies and laws that advance and protect women’s rights.

Southern Africa, home of a mere two percent of the world’s population, accounts for 35 percent of all people living with HIV and almost one third (32 percent) of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths in 2007. Women remain particularly vulnerable to the impact of HIV/AIDS, making up over 60 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS in the region.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is hitting women the hardest because they are the poorest, least powerful members of society. They suffer high rates of domestic and sexual violence, and endure discrimination through laws, policies, and traditions that deny them basic rights. The intersection of the HIV/AIDS crisis with poverty, unemployment, lack of education and responsibility for caring for sick family members further limits opportunities for women and girls. The high AIDS death rate for women will have serious implications for the future of families and livelihoods in the region.

Oxfam America is building on its successful program of women’s rights to address gender inequalities that are contributing to the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since 2005, the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) of Oxfam America has implemented a regional HIV/AIDS, policy, law, and women’s rights partnership program in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. The program envisions “a southern Africa in which women and girls realize their full potential, have a life of dignity, without violence, vulnerability to HIV, and the impact of AIDS”.

The UNAIDS 2007 report identifies South Africa as the country with the largest number of people living with HIV. The National Strategic Plan for HIV and Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections makes reducing the number of new HIV infections one of its main targets, and aims to extend treatment to 80 percent of those with AIDS by 2011. South Africa's comprehensive HIV/AIDS roll-out plan is the biggest in the world with some 300,000 people currently on anti-retroviral treatment, against a target of over 700,000.

In South Africa, Oxfam America’s work focuses on the North West, a province with an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 18 percent and a strong traditional, cultural background. Oxfam’s partners work with cultural leadership to change negative practices which increase the vulnerability of women to HIV/AIDS. Our partners also help people living with HIV/AIDS to get affordable treatment for opportunistic infections and HIV-related illness. Through a network of over 1,000 AIDS Service Organisations and individuals addressing the AIDS pandemic in South Africa, we promote a non-discriminatory response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic based on people’s basic human rights.

The most recent statistics for Zimbabwe show a significant decrease in HIV prevalence (18.1 to 15.6 percent), attributed to a combination of high mortality and a decline in HIV transmission due to changes in behavior. This is welcome news to our partners who are strengthening the ability of local organizations to respond to HIV/AIDS through advocacy, and community education aimed at reducing women’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS.

Oxfam America also works with partner organizations throughout Zimbabwe to improve the rights of women through legal reform, as the consequences of gender inequality and patriarchy, such as gender-based violence, place women at particular risk of HIV infection. The introduction of a Domestic Violence Law (October 2007), following seven years of advocacy and lobbying by a coalition of women’s groups, now allows women to claim and defend their legal rights and protections. Coalition members have provided training for the judiciary, police, and traditional authorities, and continue to support implementing the new law. Oxfam partners now represent civil society on the Anti-Domestic Violence Council which will review cases of domestic violence, disseminate information, and promote assistance to victims in domestic violence cases.

The 2007 UNAIDS report notes an increase to 20 percent in the AIDS infection rate in the central and southern zones of Mozambique. The new infections continue to strain efforts to fight the epidemic in this impoverished country of more than 19 million people.

Women in Mozambique remain susceptible to HIV/AIDS through the entrenched gender inequalities that exist in rural communities. A key strategy in dismantling this deep-rooted discrimination against women and girls has been to advance gender equality through legal reform. Oxfam America was instrumental in the formation of a coalition of partner organizations which pressed for the Family Law in Mozambique, and are now helping to educate women’s groups, traditional leaders and judicial officers at district and provincial levels about the new law.

The Family Law provides for a broad range of women's rights, gives women equal status, recognizes the legitimacy of customary marriages, and protects spouses in the event of death or separation. The Women's Coalition in Mozambique is now pushing to make domestic violence a criminal offense and for the revision of the country’s inheritance laws to secure the rights of widows.