Welcome to the Gender Equality and HIV Prevention Programme

Through strategic research and policy interventions the Programme seeks to mobilise evidence to strengthen the integration of gender equality into the response to HIV and AIDS in southern and eastern Africa. The Programme is framed within a gender equality lens, emphasising that HIV and AIDS is not going to be resolved unless gender inequalities are tackled; the Programme also has a specific focus on HIV prevention.

Latest News from the Programme

Workshop: Through the ongoing partnership with the ATHENA Network, the Gender Programme at HEARD provided materials and support to the "Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality through National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS” Workshop held in Istanbul, Turkey 14-16 November 2011. The workshop built on the HEARD/ATHENA co-developed Framework for Integrating Women, Girls and Gender Equality in Southern and Eastern Africa to develop a specific tool for analysing National Strategic Plans for HIV and AIDS' integration of gender-based violence and engaging men and boys (GVB Policy Analysis Tool). For more information on the workshop click here.

Presentation given: Gender Programme Researcher Andrew Gibbs presented on how National Strategic Plans for HIV and AIDS (NSPs) in southern and eastern Africa integrate gender-based and sexual violence at the recent Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum held in Cape Town in October. Andrew emphasised that despite the clear link between violence and HIV, few NSPs meaningfully integrated violence.

Meeting: As part of the Gender Programme's ongoing work around strengthening the response to women, girls and gender equality in National Strategic Plans for HIV and AIDS, the Gender Programme and ATHENA Network co-hosted a meeting with UNAIDS and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in September, 2011. This meeting brought together National AIDS Councils and civil society from across 11 countries from across southern and eastern Africa to critically interrogate existing National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS and develop action plans for the next generation. For more information about this work click here.

Funding Awarded: The Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) has awarded a five year grant to the Gender Programme and colleagues at Queens University, Canada to undertake an evaluation of a combined community mobilisation and health systems strengthening intervention to reduce gender-based violence and HIV in rural South Africa. This intervention and research will start in 2012 and builds on over five years of work in rural South Africa by the colleagues at Queens University.

Paper published: Gender Programme researcher Andrew Gibbs and colleague Geoff Jobson (Anova Health Institute) have just published an article "Narratives of masculinity in the Daily Sun: implications for HIV risk and prevention" in the South African Journal of Psychology. They argue that the ways in which the Daily Sun represents men has a profound impact on the identities that are available for men in urban South Africa, which undermines HIV prevention.