UNIFEM, in collaboration with UNAIDS, has developed this comprehensive gender
and HIV/AIDS web portal to provide up-to-date information on the gender
dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The site aims to promote understanding,
knowledge sharing, and action on HIV/AIDS as a gender and human rights issue.
While HIV/AIDS is a health issue, the epidemic is a gender issue. Statistics
prove that both the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS are not random. HIV/AIDS
disproportionately affects women and adolescent girls who are socially,
culturally, biologically, and economically more vulnerable. The figures are
alarming: 19.2 million of the 38.6 million adults (aged 15-49) living with
HIV/AIDS are women. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 58 per cent of the HIV positive
adults are women; in the Caribbean, the proportion has reached 50 per cent.
Globally, the incidence of HIV/AIDS among women has risen at a shocking rate. In
1997, 41 per cent of HIV infected adults were women and this figure rose to 50
per cent at the end of 2002. Women's empowerment is one of the only HIV vaccines
available today. As the only women's fund at the United Nations, UNIFEM is
determined to ensure that gender equality does not remain a lofty ideal, but
becomes a guiding principle in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
This web portal is where you can find cutting edge research, studies and
surveys; training materials; multi-media advocacy tools; speeches and
presentations; press releases and current news; best practices and personal
stories; campaign actions and opinion pieces by leading commentators.
www.GenderandAIDS.org offers these and other up to date resources on the gender
dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
By providing access to a variety of materials in one place, information can be
retrieved quickly and easily, thereby reducing the amount of time spent locating
key resources and materials on the Internet. Resources are organized by topic,
type, and region and the entire site is fully searchable. Short summaries are
provided for each of the resources to give visitors to the site a quick overview
of each of the materials.
The web portal also offers interactive features such as: registration for email
alerts when the site is updated and new materials are added; feedback forms for
comments, ideas, and suggestions for improvement of the site; on-line forms for
sending materials and resources you would like to include in the site; and
surveys and opinion polls on specific issues.
In the future, this web portal will expand to include an experts database/roster
that will serve as a certifying and networking service for national, regional
and global gender and HIV/AIDS experts who can provide technical advice at all
levels. The roster will include experts with skills in areas such as gender
analysis, mainstreaming gender into HIV/AIDS plans, programmes, and policies,
training in gender, human rights and HIV/AIDS, programme formulation, research
and documentation, advocacy and media skills relating to gender, human rights
and HIV/AIDS.
If you would like more information on this on-line resource centre and web
portal, or would like to submit resources to be included, contact:
Ms. Nazneen Damji
Programme Specialist, Gender and HIV/AIDS
United Nations Development Fund for Women
304 E45th Street
15th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Email: unifem@genderandaids.org
Copyright © by UNIFEM Gender and HIV/AIDS Web Portal All Right Reserved.
