Gender, HIVAIDS and Rural Livelihoods: Addressing the challenges

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Gender, HIV/AIDS and Rural Livelihoods
Addressing the challenges
Gladys Mutangadura http//www.uneca.org.zm
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FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONSES TO HIV/AIDS
PREVENTION
MITIGATION
TREATMENT
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IDEAL MULTISECTORAL RESPONSE
TREATMENT
PREVENTION
MITIGATION
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RURAL LIVELIHOODS
HIV/AIDS MORTALITY MORBIDITY

• Mitigation
• Reducing vulnerability to the impact
• Rectifying the impact restore support

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OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

• Global and regional mandates for promoting gender
  equality
• The gender differences in rural livelihoods
• The gender related impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural
  livelihoods
• Possible mitigation responses
• Lessons and outstanding gaps

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Recapitulating International Regional
Commitments
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MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
GENDER EQUALITY EMPOWER WOMEN
ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY HUNGER
UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
COMBAT HIV MALARIA OTHER DISEASES
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• Committee on the elimination of discrimination
  against women (CEDAW) International, 1979
• 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and currently
  the Beijing 10 review
• African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights,
  1981
• Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, 2003
  (PRWA).

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What are the gender differences in rural
livelihoods ?

• agricultural production and food security
• cash vs food crops
• household work
• land rights
• access to credit and
• non-farm activities

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Workload Share of Woman
Clearing land 5 Turning soil  30 Planting 
50 Weeding hoeing  75 Harvesting 
65 Carrying crops home 85
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Workload Share of Woman
Storing  80 Processing  90 Marketing 
60 Carrying of water fuel 95 Domestic
animal care 55 Cooking family
care 95 Small-scale farmers 85 Source GREEN
AFRICA Network, 2004
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Gender differences in education
Adult literacy Rate FEM MALE Lesotho
90 74 South Africa
85 87 Zimbabwe 86 94 Mauritius
99 99 Namibia
83 84 Botswana 82 76 Swaziland
80 82 Zambia
74 86 Malawi
49 76 Mozambique 31 62
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Gender related impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural
livelihoods?
Even before falling ill, a woman will often have
to care for a sick husband, thereby reducing the
time she can devote to planting, harvesting and
marketing crops. When her husband dies, she is
often deprived of credit, distribution networks
or land rights. When she dies, the household will
risk collapsing completely, leaving children to
fend for themselves. UNSG, 2002
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Gender related impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural
livelihoods?

• Increased female headed hhs
• Increased workload of women for agric. production
• Loss of income assets
• Increase in the vulnerability of women to land
  and property dispossession
• Withdrawal of children esp.
• girls from school

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Gender related impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural
livelihoods?

• Increased domestic work load for women
• Declining rural safety nets and increased burden
  of fostering of orphans
• Increased challenges of the Elderly esp. women
  who are caregivers and foster parents

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Possible mitigation responses
1. Improve agric. productivity of women in
HIV/AIDS env.
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Mitigation responses - contd
2. Protecting the rights of women to land and
property
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Mitigation responses - contd
3. Lightening the domestic labour burden of
women
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Mitigation responses - contd
4. Economic empowerment of women and girls
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Mitigation responses - contd
5. Strengthening informal strategies
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Mitigation responses - contd
6. Assist the elderly especially elderly women
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Some lessons

• Mainstream gender in HIV/AIDS mitigation
• Record experiences and share them widely
• Advocacy in protecting the land/ property rights
  of women in HIV/AIDS contexts
• Ongoing gender mainstreaming- good scale up
  women empowerment progs.

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Outstanding knowledge gaps

• Gender disaggregated data
• Detailed experiences of gender-focused
  interventions
• Gender based indicators for monitoring
  improvements
• Prioritized mitigation interventions -
  effectiveness
• Male face of the epidemic

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Concluding Remarks

• HIV/AIDS impacts on rural livelihoods are not
  gender neutral
• Do we believe in upholding our mandate of
  promoting gender equality (CEDAW, MDGs, PRWA)?
• How can we make a difference in HIV/AIDS
  mitigation in addressing the gender dimensions of
  the impacts?

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Concluding Remarks

• What are we doing in our countries in addressing
  key challenges
• increased female labour burden,
• addressing underlying cultural gender div. work,
• inc. vulnerability to loss of land property
  rights,
• increased food insecurity,
• reduced access to education and credit?
• What is working? Not working?
• What can we recommend to our leaders?

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THANK YOU !