Women and men practice and promote healthy gender norms and work together to end gender-based, sexual and intimate partner violence to mitigate risk and impact of HIV
No country so far achieved full gender equality, while structural inequalities linked to age, gender identity or sexual orientation, income, class, ethnicity, and many others combined with pervasive gender discrimination render women and girls, especially those belonging to key populations more vulnerable to HIV and its deleterious impacts. Violence against women––at home and in public spaces––continues to be a global pandemic. Too many girls are not accessing secondary education, while economic insecurity, including women’s disproportionate reliance on the informal sector for work and the burden of unpaid care and domestic work, increases their vulnerability to HIV and hamper their ability to mitigate the impact of the epidemic.
Unequal gender norms and power dynamics, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to put women in all their diversity at increased risk of HIV infection and reduce their access to and uptake of HIV services. The number of new HIV infections among women is still increasing in eastern Europe and central Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, six out of seven new HIV infections among adolescents aged 15–19 occurred in girls, and young women aged 15–24 years are twice as likely to be living with HIV than men.
Violence against women increases women’s risk to HIV by 50%. Women living with HIV are often subjected to violence because of their HIV status. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on women’s vulnerability, with violence against women surging during the pandemic and HIV, SRH and social services often unavailable.
In 2021, the Joint Programme continued addressing the gender dimensions of the HIV epidemic through a range of activities, such as strengthening women’s leadership in the HIV response, including in the development, review and implementation of national HIV strategies, as well as scaling-up evidence-based interventions and strengthened implementation of evidence-based approaches to prevent violence against women and HIV. The Joint Programme also prioritized increased availability and use of knowledge and tools to promote gender equality in national HIV responses, including gender assessments, gender-responsive actions, budgets and indicators and provided support to effectively respond to violence against women and availability of services for survivors, including in humanitarian settings.
Find more details in the SRA report.
Outputs 2016-2021
| 5.1 | Strategic actions for gender equality and women and girls included and resourced in AIDS responses |
| 5.2 | Actions to address and prevent all forms of gender-based violence implemented |
| OUTPUT INDICATOR | Targets and Milestones | 2021 Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage of countries with national HIV policies and strategies that promote gender equality and transform unequal gender norms |
2021: 70% 2019: 60% 2017: 50% |
70% [61/87] |
| Percentage of countries with laws and/ or policies and services to prevent and address gender-based violence. |
2021: 70% 2019: 60% 2017: 50% |
66% [57/87] |
|
Data source: 2021 JPMS country reports. |