Russia and AIDS: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

7. PRAVDA.Ru: What is the message that UNIFEM would like to communicate regarding women’s rights and AIDS?

Nargis Azizova: Within its report presented at the AIDS Conference, UNIFEM articulated actionable recommendations as a roadmap for governments, donors, civil society and others involved in the AIDS response to ensure women’s participation. They include:

- needs to recognize affected women, such as HIV-positive women, home-based caregivers, and young women, as key stakeholders in the AIDS response and reserve formal places for their full participation and leadership in decision-making bodies, such as on the Country Coordinating Mechanisms of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. To enable women to contribute to the policy consultations in this filed, there should be commitments to strengthen their capacity and promote a new cadre of women-leaders at local and national levels ;

- monitoring of the full and active participation of people living with HIV, vulnerable groups, most affected communities in the HIV and AIDS response, with special attention to women living with and affected by HIV;

- ensuring that national policy on HIV/AIDS prioritize women’s needs identified by them through participatory and inclusive policy formulation processes. Immediate needs such as improved access to prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, treatment and social support services have to be addressed efficiently;

- improving gender responsiveness of the formal decision making bodies and funding mechanisms;

- providing support for CSOs for consultation and collaboration, and investing in organizations and initiatives led by HIV-positive women, especially community-based ones;

- placing education and awareness raising on women’s human rights as a priority for development interventions;

- Documenting and dissemination of best practices and innovative approaches to strengthen leadership of women, in particular HIV-positive women, in HIV/AIDS response.

Full text of report in English is available on the site - http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/Transforming_the_National_AIDS_Response_Advancing_Women_Leadership_Participation.pdf

*Exclusive interview between PRAVDA.Ru and UNIFEM Gender and Governance Advisor for Tajikistan Nargis Azizova regarding the AIDS epidemic worldwide and in the ex-CIS countries, including Russia. PRAVDA.Ru interview conducted by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.

Nargis Azizova

Gender and Governance Advisor for Tajikistan

UNIFEM

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru

Director and Chief Editor Portuguese Version

PRAVDA.Ru