Building the Case for Addressing Violence Against Women and HIV & AIDS Together

ActionAid’s work with women’s organizations across the world has exposed a fatal synergy between the pandemics of Violence against Women (VAW) and HIV&AIDS. Women who are HIV-positive tend to have a higher degree of exposure to violence. And women in violent situations experience heightened vulnerability to HIV transmission.

The human toll is devastating. During the 2002-2003 upheaval in Liberia, Famatta was gang-raped by a general and his body guards. She reported the rape to her father but he felt powerless to help her. A few months after the rape, Famatta began to feel ill, and discovered first that she was pregnant and then that she was HIV-positive. Her partner abandoned her and her twin sons.

Sunu from Nepal also underlines the link between violence and HIV&AIDS as she describes her treatment at the hands of an abusive partner: “He would beat me to the point that he was too ashamed to take me to the doctor. He forced me to have sex with him and beat me if I refused. This went for all his [wives]. Even when he was HIV-positive he still wanted sex. He refused to use a condom.”

In both of these cases, ActionAid has been on hand, providing direct services through our partners on the ground and working to empower women to claim their rights. But for many women, help remains elusive.

Despite an avalanche of chilling stories like these from around the world, most HIV & AIDS prevention strategies fail to integrate effective measures to address violence as a crucial transmission channel for the AIDS virus. ActionAid is committed to correcting that failure. And to do so we have to strengthen the research base that helps policy makers, donors and public health officials understand the connection between VAW and HIV&AIDS.

As ActionAid helps build the justification for linking VAW and HIV prevention programs, our rights-based approach compels us to include the voices of those most affected by the twin pandemics in both the analysis of the problem and the debate on solutions. Our research on this issue will help women like Sunu and Famatta make their case in the halls of power and within their own communities.

  • No Panacea: Unpacking the Multiple Driving Factors of Violence Against Women and HIV&AIDS. This report lays the groundwork for understanding the multiple approaches and policies needed to end VAW and HIV&AIDS. Drawing on a wide range of both academic and anecdotal sources, No Panacea provides compelling and pertinent information to the public and decision-makers in governments and donor agencies.
  • Promising Practices: In collaboration with the United Nations Women’s Development Fund (UNIFEM), ActionAid is drafting a report on effective strategies for fighting VAW and HIV&AIDS together. This publication will also become a web-based resource center for information on a range of activities including media campaigns, integrated health services, community-based support models, and other initiatives.
  • With our partners in ActionAid country programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America, we are developing plans for a Research Agenda on VAW and HIV&AIDS Globally, to be advanced by researchers at universities in the global south and in the United States.
  • ActionAid is working with AfroLez© Productions and TruthAIDS to promote the production of Painting Our Courage: A Revolution to End Violence Against Women and HIV&AIDS, a documentary film and broadcast radio project to raise awareness and catalyze action to address violence against women and HIV&AIDS.

In partnership with experts and activists in the United States and across the globe, ActionAid is developing a series of initiatives to build the case for integrating VAW and HIV&AIDS prevention programs: