Gender inequalities sabotage development - Report

Development agencies and governments have failed to take gender issues seriously when planning and implementing HIV/AIDS policies, new Commonwealth research shows.

It noted the need for clear procedures to ensure that development aid for HIV/AIDS projects incorporates gender equality if global plans of halving poverty by 2015 are to be met.

“There is often a big gap between policy and practice, because of insufficient resources, training and capacity,” said Dr Robert Carr of the University of the West Indies in research commissioned for the 8th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting in Uganda held from 11 to14 June 2007.

According to the report, ‘Financing HIV/AIDS Interventions’ donor agencies and countries are facing scrutiny over some of the conditions they set for giving money to AIDS projects.

Dr Carr studied four major donor agencies: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the UK Department for International Development and the World Bank.

His findings support the 10-year Commonwealth Plan for Gender Equality (2005 to 2015) which specifically refers to aid requirements and funding for projects aimed at achieving gender equality.

Gender issues were either lacking in programmes, driven by political and moral conditions, significantly under-funded or poorly evaluated.

Gender work is frequently seen as an add-on, not central to planning and practice, Dr Carr said.

In the context of escalating HIV infection rates in women and girls, the need for donor policies with a built-in understanding of gender issues was an urgent requirement.

“Gender programming is so fundamental to how societies function and to the solutions individuals, families and households find to cope with poverty that it must be at the core of national and global solutions, if we are not to miss the mark,” Dr Carr argued.

Governments and aid agencies ignoring or relegating the basic connection between funding and the context and gender of the people who receive it, undermine crucial development work, he said.

“A development crisis like the spread of HIV is a reflection of these gendered challenges, not an external agent imposing itself on us and on our societies,” Dr Carr added.

The spread of the HIV pandemic in Commonwealth countries, and its effect on development work is particularly pertinent.

In 2006 alone, 67 per cent of the 2.8 million people who died from AIDS-related diseases lived in the 53-member Commonwealth.

Of the 38.6 million people living with HIV globally, 24 million are Commonwealth citizens and some 11.5 million of these are women or girls.

In snapshots of five Commonwealth countries funded by the four donor agencies -- Botswana, Guyana, India, South Africa and Uganda, the study looked at whether the financing of HIV/AIDS interventions at national level addressed gender equality issues. Although five countries were considered, the findings are representative of the Commonwealth at large.

Considering it was governments that applied for grants and then decided how the cash could be used, it was their duty to factor in the gender elements, Dr Carr emphasised.

“While there has been some progress, in many respects opportunities for funding to address gender in equality in the context of HIV/AIDS have not been followed through.”

He cited a gap in the language of funding proposals by member governments and in public statements made by donor agencies as factors in slowing the pace of development.

“This is either because the core role gender inequality plays in undermining development programming is not addressed or because tackling gender equality is seen as a luxury – or both,” he said.

Commonwealth ministers gathered in Uganda from 11 to 14 June 2007 to address the issue of financing gender equality.

The starting point should be a framework that clearly links gender inequality to underdevelopment, HIV/AIDS and the stigma surrounding it, Dr Carr said.

He recommended that a plan of action be implemented to free the potential of people locked up by gender norms in developing countries.

Commonwealth countries have shown leadership in making gender a core part of development programming, including in HIV prevention, care and treatment.

Uganda and Botswana have been particularly effective in translating gender equality into practice. While headway has been made in Guyana, India and South Africa, the study called for greater progress in those countries.

by Victoria Holdsworth of the Commonwealth News and Information Service.

Email: v.holdsworth@commonwealth.int