Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, HIV and AIDS

HIV and AIDS has been the World YWCA’s priority issue for nearly a decade. In 1987 a World Council resolution on AIDS outlined issues around ignorance, awareness and prevention and stigma. The resolution resolved that “the World YWCA Council urges national YWCA to establish programmes providing preventative health education on the subject of AIDS”. In 2003, the World YWCA Council adopted a resolutions on Reproductive Health and Sexuality calling on the YWCA movement to promote and work towards the provision of extensive access to quality education, resources, information, discussion and counselling for women and girls regarding their reproductive right.

The World YWCA has extensive expertise and global programming on HIV and AIDS with YWCAs in over 70 countries implementing programmes on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV and AIDS. The World YWCA’s principal challenge is to sustain the current leadership and mobilise new leaders to respond effectively to the challenges HIV and AIDS pose for women and girls.

In 2007, the World YWCA further committed to advancing women’s rights by including actions on SRHR in the Nairobi 2007 Call to Action on HIV and AIDS launched at the International Women’s Summit on Women’s Leadership on HIV and AIDS [1]. In regions where the HIV prevalence is high, access to sexual and reproductive heath tools like condoms have a dual effect: they enable women to plan their families and also offer protection from HIV and STIs. The female condom offers women an additional choice for contraception and protection. In the 2006 AIDS epidemic update, UNAIDS reported that in Thailand a third of new infections were among married women. In Cambodia, 40% of married women surveyed reported fear that their husbands would infect them with HIV [2]. In a recent survey in East Africa, 40% of married individuals with HIV have uninfected partners [3]. For serodiscordant couples (where only one partner is HIV-positive), condoms use is crucial to ensure healthy and pleasurable sexual relationships.

On numerous occasions, the World YWCA has called for increased access and distribution of the female condom. But condoms are not the only solution to preventing HIV. With over 70 member associations running programmes on HIV and SRHR, the World YWCA understands that a comprehensive approach is essential to an effective response to HIV. Early in 2009, the World YWCA convened a consultation to strengthen the global strategy on SRHR and HIV and AIDS including condom programming. The revised strategy offers four goals for the YWCA movement to focus its action: create a safe and inclusive space for women and girls; provide comprehensive prevention including comprehensive condom programming (CCP) and integrated information on SRHR, HIV and VAW; develop leadership and strengthen capacity, especially with young women as champions and leaders on SRHR, HIV and an end to VAW; and ensure documentation and quality monitoring and evaluation of YWCA programmes.

World YWCA global strategy on SRHR, HIV and VAW

The importance of linking sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and HIV has become widely recognised. [i] International conventions such as CEDAW and global commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals, Beijing Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action cannot be met without ensuring universal access to SRHR and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

The World YWCA 2009-2012 strategic framework provides direction on the links between accessing information, resources and services—especially sexual and reproductive health services—with prevention, care and treatment of HIV and AIDS. To strengthen the strategic framework, a consultation on the World YWCA global strategy on SRHR and HIV and AIDS including condom programming was held in Geneva from February 23-25, 2009.

Supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 40 participants came together to share their experience and expertise on SRHR, HIV and AIDS and violence against women (VAW). The outcomes of the consultation confirmed the importance of taking a comprehensive and integrated approach to SRHR and HIV with a particular focus on prevention.

The World YWCA strategy affirms that it is essential to:

1. Create a safe and inclusive space for women and girls
2. Provide comprehensive prevention including:

• Comprehensive condom programming (CCP)
•  Integrated information on SRHR, HIV and VAW that leads to empowerment and behaviour change at community level
• Address stigma and discrimination of women and girls living with HIV

3. Develop leadership and build capacity, especially with young women as champions and leaders of SRHR, HIV and an end to VAW

4. Ensure documentation and quality monitoring and evaluation of YWCA programmes

The YWCA is renowned as a safe space for women, including young women, in which they are empowered to take ownership of their lives. YWCAs are therefore ideally positioned to provide safe and inclusive, non-judgmental and confidential spaces for women and girls to discuss and disclose challenges they face in SRHR, HIV and AIDS and VAW. Safe spaces can refer to actual physical space and/or a gathering of women and girls where they feel safe to learn and disclose their sexual and reproductive health challenges.

[i] IPPF, UCSF, UNAIDS, WHO, UNFPA. Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV Linkages: Evidence Review and Recommendations. 2008.

[1] at the International Women’s Summit on Women’s Leadership on HIV and AIDS,

[2] 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. UNAIDS

[3] 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. UNAIDS