The International Community of Women Living with HIVAIDS

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The International Community of Women Living with
HIV/AIDS

• Evaluation grounded in the reality of our lives

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Background

• Started in 1992
• Run for and by HIV positive women
• 5000 members in 138 countries membership is
  open to HIV positive women and is free and
  confidential

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ICWs vision is

• A world where all HIV positive women Have a
  respected and meaningful involvement at all
  political levels, local, national, regional, and
  international, where decisions that affect our
  lives are being made
• Have full access to care and treatment (ACTS)
• Enjoy full rights, particularly sexual,
  reproductive, legal, financial and general health
  rights irrespective of our culture, age,
  religion, sexuality, social or economic
  status/class and race.

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What is different about ICW?

• ICW members speak for themselves and other
  positive women
• They speak from their experience
• They speak from their personal understanding of
  how policies will affect them as HIV positive
  women
• Are involved in all aspects of ICWs work

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International Structure of ICW

• UK Board of Trustees (75 must be positive women)
• ISC (100 positive women)
• International Support Office
• Global Advocacy Officer on Sexual and
  Reproductive Rights
• Global Advocacy Officer on Access to Care,
  Treatment and Support

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ICW structure by region

• Latin America and the Caribbean
• North America
• Southern Africa Regional Office
• Eastern Africa Regional Office
• Francophone/Anglophone Africa
• Asia Pacific
• Europe

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Our key themes

• Gender and ACTS
• Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights
• Meaningful Involvement of HIV positive women

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Why Meaningfully Involve HIV positive women?

• We have organisations but men lead the
  organisations and our issues dont get
  discussed. (ICW member, South Africa)
• Were weary of being asked to attend meetings as
  an after-thought, to stand up and provide a
  personal testimony but little else. The issue of
  how I got infected matters far less than what
  I did next. We want to be included from the
  outset in deciding agendas, taking decisions and
  implementing and evaluating (ICW member, UK)
• 'I was always the target of interviews but now I
  was part of the planning and interviewing. I
  gained self-confidence and made new friends.
  (ICW member, Thailand)

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How does ICW do this?

• ICW uses a participatory approach in its work
• This results in our work being grounded in
  reality
• We build the capacities of HIV positive women to
  become meaningfully involved

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Meaningful involvement and evaluation

• A current example
• Positive Women Monitoring Change

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What can you do?

• Ensure meaningful involvement of HIV positive
  people
• Provide training to ensure our meaningful
  participation
• Value our recommendations and advice
• Encourage donors to fund programmes which
  meaningfully involve HIV positive people

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And..

• By consulting HIV positive people, you will
  create programmes to fit people rather than
  people to fit programmes.
• Positive involvement is also a really important
  coping strategy, helping many women, men and
  children come to terms with a positive diagnosis.
  

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As an organization, ICW

• Conducts skills building with HIV positive women
• Establishes and maintains national, regional and
  international structures
• Facilitates e-forums for HIV positive women
• Conducts research on issues of importance to HIV
  positive women
• Produces and disseminates publications
• Coordinates and works collaboratively with other
  organizations
• Lobbies on HIV positive womens rights

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For more information

• Please contact our Monitoring and Evaluation
  Officer, Luisa Orza, luisa_at_icw.org
• And visit our website www.icw.org