Promoting Gender Equality in HIV and AIDS Responses: Making Aid More Effective Through Tracking Results

While a majority of countries have policies on HIV and AIDS, it is unclear to what extent HIV and AIDS funding and current aid flows are indeed "effective" in improving the lives of women and girls and achieving gender equality. As developing countries and donor partners re-focus development assistance around principles of national ownership and coordination, it is critical to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to the aid effectiveness agenda on HIV and AIDS.

UNIFEM and the European Commission (EC) have been working in collaboration to prioritize gender equality in aid agendas and to get a clearer picture of the effect that HIV funding and policy have on women’s lives, focusing in particular on the impact it has on ending violence against women and in improving women’s sexual and reproductive health access and rights. In May 2008, UNIFEM and the EC organized an expert consultation on "Tracking and Monitoring Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS in Aid Effectiveness," to identify and promote approaches in national development planning, implementation and budgeting that bring real results in empowering women and reducing HIV and AIDS among women and girls.

Promoting Gender Equality in HIV and AIDS Responses: Making Aid More Effective Through Tracking Results presents the key findings of the consultation; it highlights the need for a framework that links structural, social and individual determinants of gender inequality as well as presents opportunities (provided by the Paris Declaration) to strengthen the focus on intersections between HIV, violence against women, and sexual and reproductive health access and rights. The publication also underscores the need for comprehensive gender equality indicators for use in monitoring progress to meet key targets and goals outlined within the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS.

Note: This publication includes a multimedia resource CD, available below for download as a CD image file, which can be burned on a blank disc.