Launch of International Institute on Gender and HIV/AIDS
17 June 2004
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| "The Institute will play a vital role in the ongoing response to HIV/AIDS across the Commonwealth." |
The launch was conducted during a five-day meeting which brought together some 90 policy-makers, civil society representatives, academics and researchers from Botswana, Canada, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland to discuss the successes and challenges of integrating a gender perspective into work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
"This Institute is without walls, without borders. It will move from region to region, acting as a catalyst in the sharing of knowledge and experience for effective strategies that address the multi-faceted and complex dimensions of gender and HIV/AIDS," said Nancy Spence, Director of the Secretariat's Social Transformation Programmes Division. "The Institute will play a vital role in the ongoing response to HIV/AIDS across the Commonwealth."
Dr Barbara Clow, Executive Director of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, stated: "Significant work is being done to set policies, implement programmes and mitigate the impact of the pandemic across the region, yet the challenge of translating policies into effective practice, ensuring policies address gender, and establishing the evidence base for gender sensitive policies and practice still remains.
"Ensuring that people and organisations working in these different areas and across the region are connected is essential. An integral part of this initiative is the full participation of young people in the deliberations, as they are most affected by this pandemic and are often excluded in planning for change."
The Institute was developed based on extensive consultation with international experts in the field over the past four years, and through face-to-face discussions with representatives from government, research institutions and civil society throughout Southern Africa.
In a Communiqué issued at the conclusion of the virtual Institute meeting, the five participating countries announced the development of national plans of action which includes the development of 'National Institute Chapters' in each country. The tripartite structures of government, civil society and research representatives will ensure that interventions to address gender and HIV/AIDS at policy and programme levels would be more clearly informed, monitored and evaluated through a close partnership with academic and research institutions.
The keynote speaker at the opening of the workshop, Dr Olive Shisana, Executive Director of the Human Sciences Research Council and a founder of SAHARA, said: "A specific focus on gender and HIV/AIDS that helps to translate research into usable policy and practice initiatives, is one of the major hopes for confronting HIV/AIDS in this region."
Another regional collaborator, ARASA, has been established to share information, materials and expertise and act as a regional alert network to respond to human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS. One of its major initiatives is to develop a Southern African Development Community code on gender and HIV/AIDS, which it hopes all governments in the region will adopt. Marlise Richter, a researcher with the AIDS Law Project of South Africa, and a member of ARASA, feels the Institute is coming at a critical time for the region.
"Whether you look at human rights, access to treatment and care, prevention strategies or the impact of the infection itself, the gender dimension is essential to understand but is too often overlooked or given a secondary status," said Ms Richter.
The Commonwealth Secretariat, together with its partners, intends to introduce this virtual Institute model in other regions of the African continent, the Caribbean, Asia and different parts of the world in the future to address the critical issue of gender and HIV/AIDS.
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