Addressing Vulnerability

We advocate for an enabling environment that addresses the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV.

We need to advocate for review and reform of laws and policy to ensure:

  • gender equity for women in accessing credit and income-generating activities and property ownership
  • universal birth registration
  • protection of the inheritance rights of orphans and widows
  • protection of access to land, natural resources, services, and credit for PLHIV and affected communities
  • protection of children against neglect and abuse (physical, sexual and emotional)
  • prohibition of exploitative and harmful child labour
  • availability and accessibility of social welfare support
  • regulation of institutional facilities caring for children, including locating family and community-based care as soon as practicable
  • access to education for both girls and boys, especially for girls[i] (see discussion on education below), and
  • appropriate placement and guardianship of children who lack adequate adult care.

HIV is spreading fastest among young women aged 15-24. Improving access to education for girls and boys can make a powerful contribution to reducing vulnerability to HIV infection and the impacts of HIV, both directly and indirectly. The UN Millennium Declaration recognises that universal access to primary education and equal access for girls and boys to all levels of education are vital in making the right to development a reality. Literate women are four times more likely than illiterate women to know the main ways to avoid HIV. Education also accelerates behaviour change among young men, making them more receptive to prevention messages and more likely to adopt condom use.

NGOs working to improve access to, and quality of, education need to advocate for:

  • a diverse range of educational opportunities, including vocational training to enhance income-generating opportunities
  • education that enables individuals to develop life skills that will enhance their capacity to reflect on problems, find solutions, make decisions and acquire skills to earn a living
  • strategies to ensure that educational environments are non-discriminatory, that they challenge gender roles and norms and that they encourage changes in attitudes and behaviour that affect the vulnerability of women and girls
  • strategies to ensure that educational environments do not expose pupils to vulnerability to HIV infection, including implementation of policies and procedures for universal infection control and the prevention of sexual exploitation
  • strategies to address exclusion of children vulnerable to HIV and its impacts, including reducing fees and the cash costs of school attendance, and flexible programming to enable children with competing responsibilities to attend
  • creating incentives for school attendance, such as provision of meals
  • integration of HIV prevention within the curriculum, including information on sexual health and HIV transmission, and effective referral to HIV programmes to address the needs of children and young people living with and affected by HIV.