Strategies for MIWA

UN Women’s approach to MIWA and NSPs

Empowering women and guaranteeing their rights so that they can protect themselves from infection, overcome stigma, and gain greater access to treatment and care.

Longstanding support to women living with HIV and their networks, including MIWA within NSP processes.

Participation in the NSP process has shown that MIWA is critical to addressing the structural drivers of gender inequality and of violence, and in reaching out to men and boys.

UN Women's partnerships with women living with HIV provides insights into strategies that address the structural drivers of inequality and of violence, and examples of how such strategies can be integrated into NSPs and what entry points exist.

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 1: Investing in positive women’s leadership so that women most affected by HIV can advocate for policies and programmes that address structural drivers of inequality and of violence within NSPs

Strategy 2: Working in partnership with women living with HIV to generate better evidence and increased understanding of how gender dynamics and the risk, as well as realities, of gender-based violence affect women and girls, especially women and girls living with HIV.

Strategy 3: Supporting women living with HIV in building coalitions and alliances - including with networks of men and boys and women’s rights organization - to address structural drivers of inequality and of violence in NSPs.

Strategy 4: Ensuring an enabling environment for women living with HIV to advocate for the inclusion of strategies that address gender-based violence in NSPs, including those that promote greater engagement of men and boys.

Strategy 5: Identifying and supporting innovative programming that addresses intersections of violence against women and HIV, and using promising practices to inform NSPs

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 1: Investing in positive women’s leadership so that women most affected by HIV can advocate for policies and programmes that address structural drivers of inequality and of violence within NSPs

MIWA starts with investing in the leadership of women living with HIV so that they can be involved at all stages of the NSP process. First step = strengthening networks of women living with HIV at the community and national level so that they can represent themselves and be engaged in the NSP process (development, operationalization, review, M&E etc), including advocacy on the issues that affect them most, ranging from SRHR to violence to social protection and other interlinked issues.

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 2: Working in partnership with women living with HIV to generate better evidence and increased understanding of how gender dynamics and the risk, as well as realities, of gender-based violence affect women and girls, especially women and girls living with HIV.

In several countries, UN Women is working with UN partners to support positive women’s direct involvement in producing evidence that contributes to “knowing your epidemic” and is informing the development of NSPs.

Examples - Stigma Index Study (China, Cambodia), Reproductive and Maternal Health Survey of Women living with HIV with regional network of WLHIV in Asia-Pacific (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Viet Nam)

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 3: Supporting women living with HIV in building coalitions and alliances to address structural drivers of inequality and of violence in NSPs

- Strategic alliances around key issues- Bringing together organizations that work on VAW and those that work on HIV at both programming and policy level. Not just NSP processes but also NAP on DV/VAW/GBV - Dialogue between networks of women living with HIV and women’s rights organizations (including those who have a history of engaging men and boys in violence prevention programmes).

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 4: Ensuring an enabling environment for women living with HIV to advocate for the inclusion of strategies that address gender-based violence in NSPs, including those that promote greater engagement of men and boys.

Critical role of policymakers and government, particularly National AIDS Commissions, in creating space for dialogue and exchange. Combination of key change makers plus institutional mechanisms (e.g., task forces, placement of gender advisors within NACs etc).- Kenya- Indonesia

STRATEGIES THAT ADDRESS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS OF INEQUALITY AND OF VIOLENCE THROUGH MIWA

Strategy 5: Identifying and supporting innovative programming that addresses intersections of violence against women and HIV, and using promising practices to inform NSPs

Despite the fact that relatively little project and programme work focuses specifically on violence against HIV positive women, there are some interesting examples of work which takes a holistic approach to violence against women and HIV, and which in doing so, aims to address the root causes of gender based violence against women, including HIV positive women. Examples of innovative approaches can be found in the publication:“Violence against women living with HIV/AIDS: A Background Paper” by Fiona Hale and Marijo Vasquez (March 2011)”. Several interventions cited also involve the engagement of men and boys:http://www.dvcn.org/uploads/client_70/files/VAPositiveWBkgrdPaper2011.pdf

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UN WOMEN & MIWA: EXAMPLES OF GAPS WITHIN NSP PROCESSES

References to PLHIV in NSPs are often gender-neutral. NSPs don’t always acknowledge or address the specific needs, rights and priorities of women living with HIV throughout their life cycle, including the risks and realities of the violence they face.

NSPs themselves as well as the broader NSP process often lack transparent entry points for getting women living with HIV to the table.

Monitoring and evaluation processes rarely engage with women living with HIV. The result is that national M&E frameworks rarely monitor the impact of public HIV policies and programmes, including HIV testing, treatment, partner notification and criminalisation on violence against women living with HIV.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

NSPs need to be analysed in a holistic way. Policies and strategies that address issues of criminalisation of HIV transmission, routine antenatal HIV testing, provider-initiated opt-out testing, treatment access, partner notification, and other policies, must be analysed using the lens of violence against women living with HIV.

Strategic partnerships need to be in place throughout the NSP process, combining governmental and non-governmental initiatives to strengthen impact at different levels.

It is important that violence against women, including violence against women most at risk and most affected by HIV, be addressed by working with men and women in sensitive ways. In situations where women experience violence, the consequences of not working sensitively, slowly, with a long-term view rather than focusing on short-term objectives, can be extremely serious. This approach should be reflected in the development of NSPs and in the way they are operationalised.