The Inaugural International Institute on Gender and HIV/AIDS

The inaugural International Institute on Gender and HIV/AIDS: strengthening the connections between practice, policy and research will be held in Benoni, South Africa, from 7-11 June 2004. The Institute, co-developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, Dalhousie University, Canada, will bring together policy makers, programme leaders, civil society organisations, youth, academics and research organisations from Canada, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland to deliberate on the successes and the challenges – the benefits and the obstacles – to integrating a gender perspective into work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

"What makes this Instituted different from any others is that it is an Institute without walls, without borders. It will move from region to region, and act 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 Social Transformation Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

"Significant work is being done to set policies, to implement programmes and to 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", says Dr Barbara Clow, Executive Director of the Gender, HIV/AIDS & Human Rights Programme, Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, Dalhousie University, Canada. "Ensuring 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 often excluded in planning for change."

The Institute, 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, academic institutions and civil society throughout the region in March 2004, is being launched with a number of regional collaborators. These include the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA), and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA). SAHARA is a network established under the auspices of the HSRC for sharing of research expertise and knowledge across South Africa, SADC and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Olive Shisana, Executive Director at the HSRC and a co-founder of SAHARA, and the keynote speaker at the opening of the workshop on Monday, 7 June, believes that "a specific focus on gender and HIV/AIDS that helps to translate research into useable policy and practice initiatives is one of the major ways of confronting HIV/AIDS in this region".

Another regional collaborator, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) has been established to share information, materials and expertise and to 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 SADC code on gender and HIV/AIDS, which they hope all governments in the region will adapt. Marlise Richter, a researcher with the AIDS Law Project and a member of ARASA, believes 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 and too often overlooked or given a secondary status", she says.

The delegations from each country will be led by senior officials from the branch in government responsible for gender issues and will include national AIDS coordinating agencies, civil society representatives, youth and researchers. Leading up to the Institute, the head of each delegation has consulted with stakeholders to determine the issues of most relevance to that country and to sketch out a road map of the status of gender and HIV/AIDS implementation in the country.

During the four-day workshop, which will be held in Benoni, South Africa, the following issues will be discussed:

Day 1 – Road mapping – Where are we now in understanding and integrating gender into our response to HIV/AIDS?
Day 2 – Learning about strategies that can make a difference.
Day 3 – Meeting with our allies, building networks of support, identifying the gaps.
Day 4 – Consolidating Lessons – Articulating avenues for change

Southern African representatives, in collaboration with the international partners, will monitor strategies agreed upon by participants on an ongoing basis and will follow-up implementation on country-specific action plans and regional priorities. These results will help build momentum and facilitate the development of other follow-up initiatives in southern Africa in 2005 / 06.