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| | Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World AIDS Day - 1 December 2004
25-11-2004 - Today, 60 per cent of 15–24-year olds living with HIV/AIDS are young women. In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 per cent of all those infected are women. |
It is estimated that, worldwide, nearly half the people who are HIV-positive are women and girls. Women typically know less than men about the transmission of HIV and about the prevention of transmission. They also are typically less empowered to act on their knowledge. Gender inequality and gender-based violence are leading factors in this crisis, rendering women the most vulnerable to the epidemic and its effects.
Moreover, women bear the heaviest burden of the epidemic’s impact. As their tasks as caregivers increase, their roles in agriculture and domestic work are compromised. When women are identified as being ill or weak, they can be ostracized or banished from their homes and societies. They are often the first to suffer the effects of deepening poverty arising from HIV/AIDS.
This year, the theme for World AIDS Day is ‘girls, women and HIV/AIDS’. This is no time for gentle reminders but for a loud alarm-call that summons an adequate response. Let us not forget that women and girls are not only victims of HIV/AIDS but also agents whose efforts bring fresh energy to the battle against the epidemic. To strengthen their roles, they need more support and this requires the realization of their rights. For girls and women, the first step on the path to empowerment and protection from the worst effects of the epidemic is education.
Consequently, UNESCO’s approach to the battle against HIV/AIDS is based on reinforcing the link between progress towards achieving Education for All (EFA) and HIV/AIDS prevention. Many of the factors that inhibit access to education are the same ones that make girls and women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Education, especially a complete basic education of quality, empowers girls and women, and limits the effects of gender inequality. It also allows women and girls to access and understand information about basic health, including sexual health and HIV/AIDS, that are essential to living in a world with HIV/AIDS.
In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly in a Special Session made a strong Declaration of Commitment on the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Among the commitments on prevention were those of achieving significant reductions in prevalence and ensuring access to prevention programmes and services for the vast majority of young people by 2005. The longer-term goal is an AIDS-free generation by 2015. However, we cannot even approach these goals and targets without tackling the underlying inequalities that fuel the rise in female infections and thereby add to an upward spiral of infections among both men and women.
UNESCO, with its UNAIDS partners, will focus in the coming year on mobilizing a response by the education sector to the crisis. A global initiative on HIV/AIDS and prevention education will survey current efforts in key countries, analyze needs and develop partnerships for an intensive new drive to meet the challenge of making comprehensive prevention programmes available and effective for young people, including girls. The impact of HIV/AIDS on education will also be addressed by building links with other development processes, notably EFA.
The global initiative will help countries to design scaled-up educational responses and to find and absorb the resources needed for these tasks. It aims to help the education sector to utilize its full potential to ensure that the prevention effort reaches all young people, including the most vulnerable among them. This means strengthening the link between human rights, gender equality, poverty and education in the design of HIV/AIDS programmes. This, in turn, requires innovation and change within education systems, which UNESCO is committed to assisting and fostering. Above all, it requires political will and commitment at the highest level among education decision-makers and here, too, UNESCO will continue its work of advocacy and encouragement.
On World AIDS Day 2004, let all of us heed the alarm-call and re-double our efforts so that the spread of this terrible epidemic can be halted and reversed.
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