|
Gender, HIV/AIDS and rural livelihoods in Southern Africa: Addressing the challenges
Gladys B.Mutangadura
JENDA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies
Issue 7 (2005)
|
|
|
[(Download complete version  - document currently unavailable) ]
[ Share with a friend 
]
|
Abstract
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub Saharan Africa is increasingly becoming one of the major impediments to sustainable development. The increased mortality and morbidity of prime-age adults caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought wide ranging socio-economic impacts on all aspects of rural livelihoods that includes erosion of food security and the livelihood asset base, decreased access to education and other productive assets thereby exacerbating poverty. It is widely acknowledged that the impacts of HIV/AIDS
on rural livelihoods are not gender neutral, they deepen and widen existing gender inequalities. This paper examines how the socio-economic impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods have aggravated gender inequalities resulting in the increased vulnerability of women to poverty and HIV infection. Yet women play a crucial role in agriculture and household food security. The
paper suggests policy response options that can promote equal opportunities for women and men within the context of HIV/AIDS particularly in access to food and resources such as assets, capital, technology, agriculture and rural development services, as well as to employment opportunities and decisionmaking processes.
In Africa, AIDS Has a Woman’s Face
“. . . today, as AIDS is eroding the health of Africa’s women, it is eroding the skills, experience and networks that keep their families and communities going. Even before falling ill, a woman will often have to care for a sick husband, thereby reducing the time she can devote to planting, harvesting and marketing crops. When her husband dies, she is often deprived of credit, distribution networks or land rights. When she dies, the household will risk collapsing completely, leaving children to fend for themselves. The older ones, especially girls, will be taken out of school to work in the home or the farm. These girls, deprived of education and opportunities, will be even less able to protect themselves against AIDS…If we want to save Africa from two catastrophe (HIV/AIDS and famine), we would do well to focus on saving Africa’s women.”
Source: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
|
|
Related documents