Together We Must

UNIFEM and ACTIONAID Launch New Report On Promising Practices to Confront Violence Against Women and Girls and the Spread of HIV & AIDS.

UNIFEM and ActionAid are proud to release a new report that profiles innovative approaches to addressing Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) and HIV&AIDS. Together We Must! End Violence Against Women and Girls and HIV&AIDS reviews ten organizations that are working on new strategies to address these related pandemics. By releasing the report on International Human Rights Day, UNIFEM and ActionAid, affirm the urgency of confronting VAWG and HIV&AIDS as fundamental threats to women’s rights. We aim to stimulate debate and collaboration among practitioners and advocates around how to identify and promote effective prevention policies and practices that can be adapted to various contexts.

Violence against women and HIV&AIDS are mutually reinforcing pandemics; the need and the opportunity for integrated approaches addressing their intersection are increasingly evident. To date, however, such strategies have not been implemented on a widespread scale. Advocates and communities working on HIV&AIDS and VAWG are just beginning to come together to explore common strategies.

This report highlights key elements to consider in such strategies, by profiling organizations that employ human rights and gender-sensitive approaches to the dual pandemics; that empower marginalized sectors of society; that promote community ownership; that build the capacity of civil society; that encourage cross-sectoral integration; and that facilitate linkages between advocates and activists within the HIV&AIDS and VAWG movements.

Together We Must! is organized around four broad-based strategies for tackling the intersection:

  • Community mobilization to transform harmful gender norms;
  • Engagement of marginalized groups that are often more vulnerable to the twin pandemics;
  • Development of integrated approaches to support and care;
  • Advocacy for greater accountability among funding agencies and policy makers.

Collectively, these strategies offer valuable lessons and promising practices for other organizations and highlight the need for formal evaluations of such initiatives to better understand and enhance their impact. Essentially, Together We Must! represents an initial effort to draw attention to the knowledge, institutional capacity and resources needed to comprehensively address the intersection between HIV&AIDS and VAWG.