ECA in a Milestone Symposium on the Efficiency of Gender Mainstreaming in combating the feminization of HIV/AIDS

ECA in a Milestone Symposium on the Efficiency of Gender Mainstreaming in Combating the Feminization of HIV/AIDS
By Houda Mejri, ECA,15 April 2005

ECA has recently participated - through its African Center for Gender and Development - in the Southern African Regional Gender Mainstreaming and HIV/AIDS Symposium, organized in Swaziland by the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAFAIDS), 5 - 7 April 2005.

A decade after the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action - after the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Maputo Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming, SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases, and various other treaties and conventions - African countries continue to battle with gender inequalities, gender based violence and stigma, feminization of poverty and increasing feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Graca Machel, gender activist and wife to former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was a special guest at the symposium and emphasized the need to fight the epidemic. She called on women to take center stage in the fight of HIV/AIDS and to be more organized than ever before.

Present were 100 regional, continental and international experts in development issues, gender, human rights and HIV/AIDS, in addition to representatives of NGOs and UN Agencies.

The three-day symposium pondered the relevance of gender mainstreaming as a strategy for addressing gender inequality. Has it been working and has it been static or dynamic, were some of the questions raised by participants to gauge the efficiency of this approach and its impact on women's life.

The symposium also tried to explore the gender mainstreaming efforts in the specific area of combating HIV/AIDS. It examined whether it had promoted the status of women and girls, thus protecting them more efficiently in the era of HIV and AIDS, or has it become an outlived paradigm that needs to be revisited.

During the symposium, Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, ECA/ACGD Representative presented the newly developed African Gender and Development Index (AGDI), as an Africa-specific tool for monitoring gender mainstreaming, reflecting on the status of African women in various specific areas and identifying the gaps to be bridged.