The Twin Pandemics: Violence Against Women and HIV & AIDS

Women make up 61% of those infected with HIV & AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 64% of 15 to 24 year-olds living with HIV in all developing countries. The world is only beginning to recognize that the HIV is now a predominately female disease and that its spread is being accelerated by the very high level of violence against women in many countries.

In some countries, nearly a third of women report that their first sexual experience was forced or coerced and, globally, the United Nations estimates that a third of women experience abuse. Sexual violence against women increases exposure to infection. In addition, inequality often prevents women from negotiating whether to have sex, who they marry, or whether their spouse is faithful to them. In this scenario, it is impossible for a woman to insist that their partners use a condom.

For women who are diagnosed with HIV, the stigma and discrimination they face from their families and communities can cause or exacerbate violence against them. It also means they are less able to access the treatment, care and support services they are entitled to Yet most HIV & AIDS prevention programs fail to recognize that violence against women (VAW) is a key transmission channel for infection. In recent years the US government has conditioned its HIV prevention funding around the “Abstain, Be faithful or use a Condom” (ABC) paradigm, a strategy based more on values than on empirical evidence about how to stop the spread of the virus. ABC offers no protection at all to women exposed to HIV & AIDS through rape, coercion or abuse.

ActionAid focuses on this problem precisely because the need for action to strengthen programming on VAW and HIV & AIDS is so urgent. By networking with affected communities in the United States – who face similar, increased risks for abuse and infection as women in developing countries - and linking them to women’s movements around the world, ActionAid promotes comprehensive changes to HIV prevention policies by:

  • Gathering evidence and building support for specific violence-prevention programs that will strengthen efforts to fight the spread of HIV & AIDS
  • Strengthening the voices of women’s organizations to forge a comprehensive global agenda for fighting VAW and HIV & AIDS
  • Campaigning with policymakers and the public to implement this agenda