Her Story
The ATHENA Network was created to advance gender equity and human rights through HIV response, working at the intersection of HIV, women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence. In 2000, at the first International AIDS Conference in Durban, a small group of women’s rights advocates found that there was no place for women living with HIV and women researching HIV to meet. This led to organising into “Women at Durban” in 2000, “Women at Barcelona” in 2002, and “Women at Bangkok” in 2004. ATHENA grew from these networking sessions. It focused on filling a critical gap in the HIV response where attention to gender as well as women and girls in their diversity was absent.
At a founding retreat in 2005, representatives from eleven organisations devoted to HIV, key populations, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) came together. In 2006, ATHENA was formally launched. In partnership with the Blueprint Coalition of Canada and networks of women living with HV, ATHENA held the first Women’s Networking Zone at an International AIDS Conference, in Toronto in 2006.
ATHENA is guided by the principles outlined in the Barcelona Bill of Rights (developed in 2002) and has been at the forefront of movement-building and leadership for gender equity, gender equality, and human rights in the HIV response since 2006. We continue to play an advocacy, policy development, capacity-strengthening, and network-convening role; collaborating with members and partners at community, national, regional, and global levels.
ATHENA recognises that only when women and girls in all their diversity can know, claim, and action their rights, will we achieve SRHR, stem the tide of HIV infections, end gender-based violence, and actualize global health. We promote and facilitate the inclusive leadership of women and girls, including gender diverse persons, and we put the most affected at the centre of our work. We create opportunities for women – and especially girls in their diversity – to develop, engage, influence, and implement the programmes, policies, advocacy, and research that affect them. We bridge the local and the global in meaningful ways, and work across gender, human rights, SRHR, GBV, and HIV. We contribute to the next generation of feminist leadership and movement-building. More, with the renewed attention to and urgency of pandemic preparedness, response, and recovery, we have worked to ensure that we are informing and driving a gendered COVID-19 response that works for adolescent girls and young women in their diversity.
Our current team is based mainly across Eastern and Southern Africa, with core team members based in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe. Nearly all our team members are young African feminists who have lived with the impacts of HIV in their communities and their families.
We bring our expertise across policy development, participatory action research, advocacy, programming, youth involvement, meaningful engagement, leadership development, and consultation, while ensuring and advancing local accountability.
Our Work
Bridging and Engaging Communities
Building directly upon more than a decade of collaborative organizing around women and HIV at International AIDS Conferences, the Women’s Networking Zone (WNZ) is a community built forum within the International AIDS Conference and parallel to other global fora that is open to the public – and a place where community members, advocates, researchers, service providers, and decision-makers can meet, share, and learn together.
Read the herstory of the Women’s Networking Zone to find out more.
We view the WNZ as an inviting and inclusive forum for bringing together, local, regional, and global perspectives, as well as for bridging the gender, human rights, HIV, and sexual and reproductive health and rights communities. Our experience in convening Women’s Networking Zones, as well as similar initiatives at prior International AIDS Conferences, has taught us how valuable a space for dialogue, skills exchange, strategizing, and networking the WNZ can be.
We are developing the WNZ for future fora, and have partnered recently to bring the WNZ to the International AIDS Conference in 2016, through global and local consultations to identify emerging issues at the intersection of women’s rights and HIV and to promote information sharing, dialogue, and exchange of experiences, skills, and knowledge amongst diverse stakeholders.
ATHENA’s approach to developing the WNZ at International Fora
Core principles for our work include:
- Partnering with local organizations and initiatives
- Partnering with groups and networks of women living with HIV
- Advancing human rights
- Bridging the gender, human rights, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV communities
- Addressing neglected or contentious human rights issues
- Linking the global with the local
- Linking research, policy, advocacy, and practice
- Developing and supporting the leadership capacity of women and girls, especially those living with HIV
- Enabling individuals and organizations to be agents of change
At the core of our approach—and what we believe to be the most effective way to generate sustainable outcomes—is a commitment to placing extraordinary women living with HIV and grassroots leaders from around the world at the center. By building bridges across the gender, human rights, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV communities, we have shaped alliances that have shifted the terms of debates, brought forward critically overlooked issues, and catapulted new voices into global processes.
Our rationale for organizing around International AIDS Conferences and other global fora is that these events provide a forum where diverse sectors of the global response to AIDS gather, media attention on AIDS is heightened, and a showcase opportunity is created to raise the visibility of local and regional priorities for women in the context of HIV and AIDS.
A shared history of organizing at International AIDS Conferences
The Women’s Caucus of the International AIDS Society (IAWC) and the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) built the foundation for the work we carry forward through the WNZ. At the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2000, HIV-positive women leaders, advocates, and public health researchers identified the need for an independent forum where women from the local Durban community could engage with delegates attending the conference and where issues that were not part of the official conference proceedings could be raised. This need drove the creation of Women at Durban, a community satellite conference in which 300 South African women from Kwa-Zulu Natal and other provinces participated in workshops, panel discussions, and strategizing sessions. As a joint initiative of the IAWC and ICW with local partners, Women at Durban was highly successful in enabling greater communication between community actors and conference participants and in generally opening up a space for information exchange, knowledge transfer, and skills-building, in addition to critical dialogue on politically challenging topics at the time, such as access to treatment.
Women at Barcelona/Mujeres Adelante was designed to build from and expand the model of Women at Durban – to bring the voices of those most affected by the HIV and AIDS epidemics into the spheres where critical information is exchanged, networks are established, and policy and research agendas are formulated. Many of the primary organizers from Women at Durban came together to work toward the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain. This group, led by the IAWC and ICW, fostered the creation of Women at Barcelona as an organizing umbrella within the conference and Mujeres Adelante as an independent, parallel forum for local community members. Both initiatives were undertaken in partnership with Creación Positiva, a local HIV-positive women’s support organization in Barcelona.
The Thai grassroots woman leader sponsored by and participating in Women at Barcelona, Rung, went on to co-found the Thai Women and AIDS Task Force (TWAT) and to lead the formation of global-local partnerships under the auspices of Women at Bangkok in the inaugural Global Village of the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
For the XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006) in Toronto, ATHENA worked in partnership with ICW and the Canadian groups Voices of Positive Women and the Coalition for a Blueprint for Action on Women and Girls and HIV. In an effort to continue the tradition and replicate the models of Women at Durban, Mujeres Adelante/Women at Barcelona, and Women at Bangkok, we convened the inaugural Women’s Networking Zone in the Global Village. The strong community-driven program provided six days of skills-building workshops, strategy sessions, and presentations. The venue provided a space for Canadian priorities to be shared and solutions to be debated, and for community-based women leaders to bring their knowledge, questions, and success stories to the discussion.
ICW and ATHENA carried forward this model of global-local partnerships to contribute to the historic July 2007 International Women’s Summit, “Women’s Leadership Making a Difference on HIV and AIDS,” in Nairobi, Kenya. We co-convened a Women’s Networking Zone in the Sokoni, parallel to the Summit.
For Mexico City in 2008, Mexicanas Positivas, ICW Latina, ICW Global, ATHENA, Colectivo Sol, and Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud partnered to form “The Alliance for Gender Justice at AIDS 2008.” The Alliance successfully convened another Women’s Networking Zone and a large women’s march through the streets of Mexico City to strengthen national, regional, and global understandings and alliances around women’s rights, gender, and HIV and to heighten the visibility and leadership of women living with, and affected by, HIV and AIDS, particularly in Latin America.
For Vienna in 2010, AIDS Hilfe Wien, PULSHIV, GSSG, Salamander Trust, ICW, and ATHENA brought together a group of women’s rights advocates from across Europe and Central Asia in Vienna in late October 2009 for a three-day consultation, hosted by AIDS Hilfe Wien, to map priorities, define a shared agenda, and establish the framework for the Women’s Networking Zone at AIDS2010. This landmark meeting of 30 women activists from across the region also built the foundation for a sustained network for positive women in the region – and these positive women from across Europe and Central Asia will continue to be our key language links to reflect different issues, such as women who are asylum seekers, women who are economic migrants, and women who currently or formerly use injecting drugs.
We look forward to carrying on this tradition and building upon the momentum of the past decade to continue to encourage collaboration amongst the global community of advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in the response to HIV and AIDS.
Engaging Men & Boys for Gender Equity
Integrating Strategies to Prevent Gender-based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Achieve Gender Equality through National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS
There is growing recognition of and attention to gender-based violence as a cause and consequence of HIV, and an expanding evidence-base establishing the linkages between HIV, gender inequality, and violence against women and girls. Despite this, programming and policies to address the intersection have not yet reached the scale, depth, or breadth required to reverse the overlapping epidemics of gender-based violence and of HIV. Too often, policies and programming to address gender-based violence are under-resourced and fragmented, operating in parallel to the national HIV response rather than in coordination and alignment.
Bridging the Gap: Addressing Emerging Trends and Neglected Issues at the Intersection of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV
ATHENA launched the “Bridging the Gap” series at the Fourth National South African AIDS Conference.
- ‘Mapping Emerging Trends and Neglected Issues at the Intersection of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV’, as an outcome document from the ATHENA 2008 SRHR and HIV Retreat.
- Fact Sheet on ‘HPV, Cervical Cancer, and HIV: Screening and Prevention’, authored by Fiona Hale.
- Policy Brief ‘Developing a Human Rights Framework to Address Coerced Sterilization and Abortion: Articulating the Principle of Free and Informed Decision-Making’, authored by the Health Equity and Law Clinic, International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law. Program of the University of Toronto.
- Case Study ‘Documenting Human Rights Violations in Healthcare Settings: Experiences of HIV Positive Women in Namibia’, containing the direct documentation of Namibia Women’s Health Network members.
Applied research services on inter-linkages between Gender Based Violence and HIV
The partnership of the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), Salamander Trust, AIDS Legal Network, the ATHENA Network and Project Empower announce that they have been selected as diverse research institutions to support the design of an implementation and monitoring framework for community based organizations in six countries based on the latest evidence and promising practices related to gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV. This work aims to document and determine effectiveness and lessons learnt.
The inter-linkages between GBV and HIV have been reflected in recent reports by WHO, UNAIDS, and others (UNAIDS, 2014; WHO, 2013). These include recognition of four main forms of GBV that need to be considered:
1) intimate partner violence (IPV), that is violence between people in a sexual relationship;
2) violence beyond IPV that results from “heteronormative” gender norms and inequalities (such as targeted sexual violence or rape against lesbian women);
3) structural violence, that is violence perpetrated by social arrangements (such as stigmatising and discriminatory attitudes of many health care workers and limited access to justice or property rights for many women); and
4) the widespread sexual violence often perpetrated as a weapon of war.
GBV intersects with other structural inequalities – poverty, disability – and other factors such as HIV status, sexuality and gender identity, sex work and drug use. These operate in such a way that women in additional contexts of marginalisation are more likely to be exposed to potential forms of GBV. In addition women often have fewer resources to protect themselves or to seek redress. Thus there is a complex and entwined interface between all these factors, HIV vulnerability, exposure, acquisition and transmission, and GBV in all its forms.
Our Consortium, contracted by and working closely with UNAIDS, will undertake the following pieces of work, grounded in human rights and using participatory approaches to:
- Design an implementation framework to be used by CBOs, based on the latest evidence and including promising community practices related to reducing GBV in the context of HIV.
- Develop selection criteria for implementing CBOs.
- Create a robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework that aligns with the implementation framework.
- Provide technical support to CBOs, in coordination with and guided by UNAIDS Country Offices (UCOs).
- Produce a journal article.
We will share updates from this project as the work progresses.
Building Leadership for Women and Girls
Learnings from the #WhatWomenWant campaign are published in a new report, #WhatWomenWant: A Transformative Framework for women, girls and gender equality in the context of HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights. It outlines the political alignment of the stars that has put gender equality squarely on the global development agenda, and what women and young women have said that they need it order to make these commitments real in their own lives.
We launched the #WhatWomenWant campaign1 with women’s civil society in May 2016 to amplify women’s voices, highlight our realities, and power our solutions. It is a dynamic and ever-evolving vehicle to bridge women into policies, practices, and interventions to improve our lives. The campaign provides a platform and creates space for women and young women to speak out and to shape their own agenda.
#WhatWomenWant has mobilized thousands of advocates and thought leaders across issues of gender equality, HIV, gender based violence, women’s rights, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for women in all of our diversity, to expand who is in the conversation and who has access to it. Through Twitter Chats, virtual consultations leveraging new media, a Young Feminist Blog Series, and a photo campaign, #WhatWomenWant seeks to answer the question, what do adolescent girls and young women, and women in all of our diversity, need to remain safe and healthy, and to be able to pursue our dreams?
1 The campaign originates from organizing by the Women’s Major Group during the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals inter-governmental negotiations, to influence policy that advances women and girls’ rights and leadership. #WhatWomenWant was re-galvanized at the 60th Commission on the Status of Women, when activists united to call for change, to ensure that governments are held accountable to international agreements and commitments set.
It is estimated that five million young people aged 15-24 and two million adolescents aged 10-19 are living with HIV. Yet young people most affected by HIV – including those living with HIV, young sex workers, young men who have sex with men, young transgender people, and young people who use drugs – typically are unable to access and utilize comprehensive health services which meet both their HIV prevention and treatment needs as well as their sexual and reproductive health needs. In addition, young people affected by HIV are often not welcome to participate in policy and programme design and implementation, or do not feel comfortable doing so because of structural and cultural factors (such as stigma, taboo and discrimination based on age, gender, HIV status, and sexual orientation) or because of perceived lack of knowledge, expertise, skills, or abilities.
To support the meaningful engagement of young people living with HIV and from key populations in decision making that affects their lives, ATHENA and Link Up partners, Global Youth Coalition on HIV and AIDS (GYCA) and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, have launched two new tools: Step Up, Link Up Speak Up Mentoring Tool and Workshop Facilitator’s Guide, and AIMING HIGH: 10 strategies for meaningful youth engagement, available in English and French. All of these resources and more can be found on the Link Up page.
ATHENA is committed to supporting and developing youth advocacy, and young women as leaders in health and advocacy, including through our Young Women’s Leadership Initiative and our mentoring strategy.
Our work on the Link Up programme also involves supporting and developing youth advocacy. We work with young women focal points in each Link Up country, who represent ATHENA in national-level advocacy activities and work to mentor other young advocates.
As part of Link Up we have been leading a mentorship programme, working with GYCA and national partners in Uganda and Myanmar. The purpose of the mentoring programme is to create a workshop guide and resource to support mentoring for youth advocacy, which enables youth advocates to share and exchange skills, build confidence to participate in advocacy and policy and to support meaningful participation to realise their rights.
The workshop guide has been co-developed and piloted with youth advocates in Uganda and Myanmar. You can read about these workshops in the reports from the Kampala and Yangon workshops. You can also read more in our recent blog about mentoring for youth advocacy.
The facilitation pack and mentoring tool are now being finalised and will be available soon!
The meaningful participation and leadership of women, particularly those most affected by the epidemic, is an essential component of an effective and comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS. Influencing mechanisms and processes by which women become more active partners in defining and implementing solutions at the community, national and global level holds significant potential for transforming the AIDS response and has yet to be consistently implemented as a cross-cutting solution.
ATHENA has undertaken a review on women’s leadership and participation in the AIDS response with UNIFEM that underscored the need for sustained commitment to ensuring women are agents of change rather than just recipients of services. Five key findings emerged from the ‘Transforming the National AIDS Response: Advancing Women’s Leadership and Participation’ report:
1) The involvement of affected communities, particularly women living with HIV, young women and grassroots women, plays a critical role in defining sound policies and programmes.
2) Unrealized potential exists for strengthening women’s leadership and participation in the AIDS response, particularly by those most affected by HIV and AIDS.
3) Significant barriers that prevent this participation, particularly of those most affected, include gender norms, gender inequalities, stigma and discrimination, lack of access to resources, the burden of care and multiple responsibilities in the home, lack of access to information, lack of formal education and training, poor self-esteem, and gender-based violence.
4) Even when women obtain a ‘seat at the table’, challenges to their meaningful involvement include lack of transparent entry points, lack of capacity to substantively participate in formal processes, competing agendas in formal decision-making spheres, and a lack of critical alliances.
5) Sustained investment in women as agents of change and in women’s mobilization, such as support for HIV-positive women’s networks, has proven successful in diverse regions and settings and should therefore be prioritized.
Access the full report here.
Recognising the need for adolescent girls and young women to actively participate and lead in the HIV response, ATHENA has developed an evolving mentorship strategy, that includes key elements of:
- Mentorship and institutional support from ATHENA
- Peer mentorship among young women living with HIV
- Inter-generational mentorship
- Cross-movement mentorship.
Through the Young Women’s Leadership Initiative (YWLI) ATHENA has developed spaces and strategies to create and support meaningful engagement in the HIV response, through providing to girls and young women:
- Support to engage in national, regional, and international policy fora
- Opportunities as country focal points to shape, inform and implement in-country project work
- Support to conduct and participate in community dialogues
- Opportunities on global reference groups alongside more experienced women living with HIV activists
- Advocating for and supporting the participation of young women in workshops, side events, panels and ATHENA-led spaces including the Women’s Networking Zone at international conferences.
An overview of our mentorship strategy and the history of the YWLI is available here. Posters detailing young women’s experiences and calls for action, from the YWLI at AIDS2012 are available here.
Gender, Rights and Diversity: Connecting the Pieces was launched by ATHENA Network and AIDS Legal Network in New York during the Commission on the Status of Women 2015. This is a learning paper looking at how we can strengthen women’s engagement with the Global Fund, and support the implementation of the Global Fund’s gender equality strategy.
The paper draws on a collaboration between ALN and ATHENA, in partnership with Access Chapter 2 (AC2), South Africa, the International Community of Women Living with HIV East Africa (ICWEA), Uganda, and the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA) in Malawi, which aimed to strengthen women’s engagement with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as it implemented a new funding model. The work was supported by German development agency GIZ’s BACKUP Initiative, and took place from June to December 2014.
Activities included:
- Country-led activities spanning from workshops to raise awareness of Global Fund structures and processes at country level
- Dialogues highlighting the need and urgency for prioritization of women’s issues in relation to HIV
- Support for the participation of women living with, and most affected by, HIV in country dialogues and concept note development processes
- A stakeholder dialogue on gender, rights and diversities in the Global Fund new funding model convened in London, in partnership with STOPAIDS, to share and distil lessons from country experiences, and challenge development partners to define their role in transforming the lives of women and girls in all of their diversity.
On July 16-17, 2015, the ATHENA Network and the Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI) convened a meeting to address the importance of engaging women and girls in the global response to HIV. The meeting was held at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA. Attendees included women living with HIV, policymakers, researchers, funders and advocacy organizations. Dawn Averitt, founder of the WRI, and E. Tyler Crone, co-founder and coordinating director of ATHENA hosted the convening and charged the group with addressing the following objectives:
Understand why the HIV epidemic continues to flourish in women and girls and why strategies-to-date have not adequately mobilized women and girls to be a part of the
- Identify successful approaches to operationally engage women and girls in all our diversity across the entirety of the HIV movement, including key decision-making
- Develop a set of action items to seed implementation of the identified approaches
- Enhance alliances to more effectively coordinate ongoing efforts to engage women and girls and advance gender equality
- Identify tactics to highlight and demonstrate successful practices and lessons learned in the operational engagement of women and girls at the center of the HIV response to share with the broader health and development fields
Find out more in the event summary report, and check out the participants who attended.
Ensuring Gender Equity in the HIV Response
Achieving #WhatWomenWant means putting accountability into action. #WhatWomenWant is a global movement, led by the ATHENA Initiative. It is a campaign powered by women, especially young women, who want to be meaningfully involved in making real, lasting change for women and girls. It uses social media, consultation, and innovative platforms to reach and engage women in all our diversity. #WhatWomenWant creates platforms for women to lead and to make their voices heard, to connect with others, to inform the HIV response with their lived expertise and to build connections with and between different issues, sectors, and movements. Fundamentally, it works to ensure that the most affected are at the center and their solutions are prioritized.
A common thread running through all the #WhatWomenWant activities has been the power and potential of meaningful accountability. Women and especially young women want more than consultation. They want the opportunity to hold to account governments, donors, multilateral agencies, policy makers, program leads, researchers, and others who make decisions that affect their lives.
To support this, ATHENA has developed #WhatWomenWant: A toolkit for putting accountability into action
This toolkit provides a framework for accountability in action, to put women and girls in all of their diversity at the center and to bring a feminist, gender transformative lens across policy development, program implementation, research, strategies, and initiatives. Throughout, we offer examples of effective ways to inform, engage, and foster leadership among women, including young women and adolescent girls, and provide ideas for everyone to take part in meaningful accountability including women themselves, Governments, donors, and policy makers. The toolkit is a living document that will be expanded and updated as we continue to learn, grow together and
advance a shared vision.
In addition to the full toolkit, the strategies for accountability are also available as separate modules:
1. Accountability in action: Engaging with new tools and technologies
3. Accountability in action: Translating strategies and guidance to support effective implementation
4. Accountability in action: Strengthening engagement with multilaterals
5. Accountability in action: Making high level commitments accessible
6. Accountability in action: Holding decision-makers to account
7. Accountability in action: Addressing gender-based violence through the HIV response
Young Women Lead, Evidence, Advocate, Research, Network (LEARN) was a two-year project funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as part of the DREAMS Innovation Challenge, managed by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. LEARN, led by the ATHENA Initiative and our community partners Personal Initiative for Positive Empowerment (PIPE) and the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA), aimed to promote an HIV prevention agenda informed by the meaningful participation of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in research that affects their lives. The project worked in three districts in Uganda (Mityana, Mubende and Mukono) and two counties in Kenya (Homa Bay and Nairobi).
LEARN was designed to support effective roll-out and uptake of PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) among AGYW in Kenya and Uganda and to ensure that PrEP implementation is responsive to the needs, rights, priorities, and preferences of AGYW in all of their diversity.
The LEARN project aimed to support effective rollout and uptake of PrEP among AGYW in Kenya and Uganda, through creating an evidence base to support implementation that is responsive to the needs, rights, priorities and preferences of AGYW in all of their diversity.
The LEARN model
LEARN involved three distinct but mutually supportive areas of activity: mobilization, research and advocacy.
- Peer and community mobilization: LEARN Ambassadors, supported by Peer Mobilizers, held mobilization activities in their local communities where AGYW were reached with PrEP information and were able to ask questions and share experiences.
- Qualitative research: the Ambassadors convened Community Dialogues with AGYW in their communities using participatory methodologies to explore knowledge, views and preferences about PrEP.
- Locally owned and informed evidence-based advocacy: the Ambassadors were supported and mentored to develop advocacy agendas based on the research findings to inform, shape and contribute to the body of knowledge on HIV prevention with a particular focus on PrEP, and to advocate with key stakeholders and decision-makers.
Ten young women were recruited as LEARN Ambassadors and trained in peer research skills, to lead community based research, with AGYW in their communities. Taking the form of Community Dialogues, the research intervention involved up to 25 participants, led by two young women (LEARN Ambassadors) and supported by project staff who attended each Dialogue. The dialogues utilized a mix of research methods and information sharing activities to inform participants and gather their
views, priorities and preferences for HIV prevention, including new prevention technologies such as PrEP.
Project achievements
- Residential skills building workshop – In May 2017, we hosted a 5 day residential skills building workshop with the LEARN Ambassadors in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop aimed to begin the process of equipping them with a sound knowledge of PrEP, its use and access; the skills to shape and conduct participatory research; and the ability to translate their findings into an action agenda, targeted at policy, research, or service design.
- Launch event – in May 2017, ATHENA hosted a project launch in Nairobi which provided a great platform to share information on the LEARN project and build partnerships with other stakeholder working on HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for AGYW. The Ambassadors took leadership in this event and highlighted the need for commitment to invest in AGYW put them at the center of research and policy enactment.
- Global Reference Group (GRG) – an advisory body to the project has been convened to provide guidance and expertise to the project. Collectively they represent a pool of knowledge that will enhance the LEARN project.
- Peer mobilization activities – the LEARN Ambassadors mentored AGYW in their districts as peer mobilizers to raise awareness around PrEP within the context of a broader dialogue around HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Each Ambassador supported 10 AGYW peer mobilizers.
- Research symposiums – in September 2018 we held research symposiums in Nairobi and Kampala to launch the LEARN research findings and engage with stakeholders. The events were well-attended and secured commitments from key policy and decision-makers.
Key Documents and Links
National Strategic Plans (NSPs) have the potential to serve as influential platforms for articulating and supporting a gender responsive HIV and AIDS agenda. However, in reality, NSPs often fall short of integrating gender responsive approaches and language in their recommendations for policy and programming (prevention, treatment, care, and support) or insufficiently operationalise these gender directives.
The HEARD-ATHENA Engendering National Strategic Plans Project
ATHENA and the Gender Equality and HIV Prevention Project of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) of the University of KwaZulu Natal have partnered to develop a Review of Women, Girls, and Gender Equality in National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa.
In line with supporting the more effective engendering of the next generation of NSPs, HEARD and ATHENA embarked on a project with the dual objectives of firstly, developing a framework for engendering NSPs and secondly assessing current Southern and Eastern African NSPs against this framework. The initial phase of this project, in mid-2010, entailed a critical scan of the literature on integrating gender into NSPs and evidence for best practice at the intersection of gender, human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV. We sought to complement the many ongoing processes of engendering NSPs, which have successfully defined why it is important to address gender, what key issues require reflection, and how to embark on the engendering process.
We envision the NSP framework and subsequent assessments as tools for effectively addressing women and girls in the context of HIV. The framework and assessments will assist Southern and Eastern African countries to improve the gender responsiveness of NSPs, while also serving as an advocacy and accountability tool for key civil society partners. Ultimately, HEARD and ATHENA view the engendering NSP project as among several key contributions towards the overarching goal of advancing women’s rights and gender equality in Southern and Eastern Africa.
Gendering NSPs Workshop Report
Following up on this initial work, ATHENA and HEARD launched How to Make Friends and Influence People: Tracking the Impact of the Framework for Women, Girls and Gender Equality in National Strategic Plans in Southern and Eastern Africa in December 2012.
We also created a set of policy analysis tools designed to facilitate a gender analysis of NSPs, and applicable to other policy and interventions. The full set of worksheets are:
- Enabling Environment: Advancing Human Rights and Access to Justice
- Meaningful Involvement of and Leadership by Women Living With and Affected by HIV
- Preventing HIV Transmission among Women and Girls
- Eliminating Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination
- Increasing Access to and Uptake of Treatment for Women and Girls
- Strengthening Care and Support by and for Women and Girls
- Accountability: Budgeting, Monitoring, Research, and Gender Expertise
- Inclusion and Engagement of the Full Diversity of Women and Girls
- Utilising a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Approach in National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS
Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence and Engage Men & Boys to Advance Gender Equality through National Strategic Plans
The UN Interagency Working Group on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (specifically: UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, UN Women and WHO), in collaboration with the MenEngage Alliance, Sonke Gender Justice and ATHENA Network has convened two global consultations on Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality through National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS. The meetings aimed to review current National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS (NSPs), to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these plans with regard to addressing gender-based violence and engaging men and boys for gender equality, and to develop country action plans for advocacy to address priority issues and gaps.
The consultations were designed and undertaken in a highly participatory manner, with delegates immersed in cross-country and –regional sharing of experience, peer-to-peer and south-to-south learning, and the collaborative development of country action plans. The first of these consultations was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 30th November to 2nd December 2010, and brought together participants from 14 countries across five regions. The second meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 14th to16th November 2011, bringing together delegations from 16 (new) countries.
Impact and Needs Assessment: Overview of Findings
Case Studies Documenting Country Action
December 2012 Meeting Summary: Regional Eastern and Southern Africa Consultation
West and Central Africa Regional Consultation: English and French
UN Women has commissioned a global review of HIV/AIDS Treatment Access for Women. This review seeks to identify key gaps related to women’s access to treatment and understand the barriers women face in the pathway to accessing treatment and care.
Findings
Preliminary findings from the review were presented at the International AIDS Society conference in Vancouver, July 2015. A satellite session co-hosted by UN Women, ATHENA, AVAC, and Salamander Trust shared the findings, with presentations by members of the Global Reference Group, among others. A poster describing the participatory research methodology developed for the review was also presented. Find out more in a four-page summary of preliminary findings, and the slide deck from the satellite session.
Background
We seek to study the impact of structural and social factors (at national policy, service delivery, community, socio-cultural and individual levels) on women access to treatment. There are gaps in knowledge in access for women and girls living with HIV, in all their diversity, that we hope to inform. We aim to provide information and recommendations that will be critical to realizing many of the individual and public health benefits of effective long-term quality HIV care, treatment access, and coverage.
We plan a range of activities including a quantitative and qualitative literature review, several country case studies, and a range of dialogues led by and with women living with HIV. We plan to identify key global, national and local policy, social and structural barriers to treatment access. We will also explore best practices, concerns, and recommendations with regard to ART access for women overall, and with specific attention to emerging strategies, such as treatment as prevention (TasP) and Option B+. We will be working with a Global Reference Group of women living with HIV who will support and guide the project and lead the dialogues.
We see this as an opportunity for women living with HIV to contribute experiences, hopes, and concerns related to ART access at a critical time in the context of the response in our countries and communities.
For more information, please see the project announcement in English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and French.
You can email the project at womentxrights@gmail.com
The Women’s HIV Prevention Tracking Project (WHiPT) is a collaborative initiative of AVAC and ATHENA launched in 2009 and envisioned as a tool and a platform for bringing community perspectives, particularly women’s voices, to the forefront of the HIV and AIDS response. The purpose of WHiPT is to advance and facilitate the monitoring of HIV prevention research, advocacy, and implementation by women who are the most affected by the epidemic.
The project had three major components:
1) Documentation and analysis of community perspectives and community participation;
2) Documentation and analysis of relevant policies; and
3) Capacity building for affected communities in HIV prevention research and advocacy.
The pilot phase of WHiPT monitored and documented concerns around the imminent implementation of medical male circumcision (MMC) for HIV prevention and its implications for women in South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia, Kenya, and Uganda. Country partners included the AIDS Legal Network, SWAPOL, Namibia Women’s Health Network, WOFAK, Mama’s Club, and the Health Rights Action Group.
Making Medical Male Circumcision Work for Women
Making MMC Work for Women – Report Summary
Making MMC Work for Women – Namibia
Making MMC Work for Women – Kenya
Making MMC Work for Women – South Africa
The Political Declaration that emerged from the 2011 High-Level Meeting on AIDS, articulates key outcome-oriented goals for 2015 (in line with the Millennium Development Goals) and signals a renewed global commitment to respond to HIV and achieve universal access. Reaching these goals demands a clear understanding of what is needed to achieve the changes sought, including in terms of addressing gender inequalities to meet each goal.
To ensure that commitments to women’s rights, and in particular sexual and reproductive health and rights, are upheld and advanced through the HIV response, the “Advancing Our Action Agenda” report highlights the priority actions that will be required from all stakeholders to ensure that we achieve these goals. It builds on and advances the “In Women’s Words: HIV Priorities for Positive Change”Action Agenda, derived from a virtual consultation involving nearly 800 women from 95 countries around the world, and launched on the eve of the 2011 High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The process also produced “In Women’s Words: A Dialogue for African Action“ (also in French). You can read more in a blog post developed during ICASA 2011: Strong, Proud and Beautiful.
The consultation was defined by 5 principles:
1) Inclusion of women and girls in decision-making, including the democratization of global processes;
2) Importance of women, girls, and gender equality;
3) Centrality of women’s rights to the success of the HIV response;
4) Political opportunity to define actions and address women, girls, and gender equality in the context of HIV and AIDS; and
5) Urgency of all Millennium Development Goals to the well-being of all women and girls.
Launching the Report
On June 7, 2011, the report was launched at an event preceding the High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The event featured a panel opened by HRE Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the Prime Minister of St. Maarten, Michel Sidibé, and Michelle Bachelet. The Minister of Gender and Development of Liberia, Frika Chia Iskandar, Ebony Johnson, Alicia Keys, and Annie Lennox were then part of a dialogue moderated by Stephanie Nolen.
The UN NEWS & MEDIA PAGE features a webcast of the report launch.
Please also visit our Document Centre for regionally specific action agendas (under “Virtual Consultation – HLM”)
ATHENA partnered with ASAP to convene a global women’s leadership development workshop on strengthening gender responsiveness in the structures, mechanisms, and programs of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. The workshop was the foundation stone for Women4GF — a new platform for women’s engagement and leadership in the Global Fund. Since the global workshop, ATHENA has continued to support W4GF workshops in Asia, East and Southern Africa, and West and Central Africa.
The initial meeting in July 2013 brought together more than 35 individuals with extensive experience on gender equality, from over 20 countries, to focus on how the Global Fund can implement its gender equality strategy most effectively to deliver real outcomes for women and girls and to advance gender equality. You can download and read the meeting outcomes and background papers from the Women4GF site.
Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Responding to current trends towards criminalizing HIV transmission and exposure, human rights and AIDS activists are raising concerns about the implications of these laws, especially for women.
Calling for rights-based approaches in the response to HIV and AIDS, the publication ‘10 Reasons Why Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission Harms Women’ clearly illustrates how criminalizing HIV exposure or transmission – far from providing justice for women – endangers and further oppresses women. This document, with 21 original endorsing organizations from around the world, affirms the protection and advancement of women’s rights as key for effective HIV and AIDS responses, and opposes laws that criminalize HIV exposure or transmission.
Women continue to be disproportionately infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. More than half of all people living with HIV are women, and women continue to be at high risk of HIV infection and of related rights abuses. Thus, any response to HIV and AIDS should take into account the effects that the pandemic, and the responses to it, have upon women and women’s vulnerability to HIV infection. Given the gendered societal context in which laws that criminalize HIV transmission or exposure will be applied and implemented, it is more likely to be women who will be prosecuted and feel the consequences of such legislation.
10 Reasons Why Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission Harms Women
The Community Innovation report series presents case studies of women-led innovations to respond to community needs. The first report in the series explored SRHR and HIV, while the second focuses on gender-based violence and HIV.
Community Innovation: achieving an end to gender-based violence through the HIV response was launched on International Human Rights Day 2014, which also marks the end of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Developed by the ATHENA Network and the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), with UNAIDS support, the report presents twelve case studies exploring innovative and pioneering practice to address issues of gender-based violence and HIV, whilst reflecting women in all our diversity, women’s leadership, and a global approach.
Community Innovation: Achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls through the HIV response was launched during the IAS 2011 conference. Compiled by UNAIDS and the ATHENA Network, it presents case studies of pioneering community undertakings to advance women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights through the HIV response and vice-versa, from different community perspectives. This report recognizes that women face unique challenges to access and fulfill their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including gender-based violence, and therefore have less access to HIV prevention, care, and support services.
The coerced sterilization of women living with HIV is an ongoing, and largely invisible, human rights violation in Namibia, and globally, with documented incidents from South Africa to Chile. In order to develop a best practice model for other countries to use and adapt as a tool to document and address the coerced sterilization of positive women within the framework of advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of positive women, the Namibia Women’s Health Network, AIDS Legal Network, and ATHENA have:
- Documented and analyzed the approaches used to highlight the practice of coerced sterilization of young women living with HIV in Namibia, including the strategies used to build an evidence base;
- Documented and analyzed the advocacy responses to this practice;
- Documented and analyzed the litigation processes from a community perspective pertaining to coerced/forced sterilization of women living with HIV in Namibia;
- Identified the lessons learned, both successes and challenges; and,
- Outlined ‘best practice’ as a tool for other countries in the region to share experiences and adapt to national contexts.
Our report reviews how a multi-pronged strategy has been utilized in the Namibian context. Through this multi-pronged strategy, the Namibian experience demonstrates how documentation, advocacy, and litigation processes can all work together to address rights violations, hold the government accountable for what is taking place in its public hospitals, and afford redress to women who have been violated. Further, the report highlights how an issue that is both invisible and contentious can be made visible and be brought to mainstream audiences through community-led documentation and alliance building spearheaded by women living with HIV. Examining the experiences of the Namibia Women’s Health Network and her partners, the report seeks to tell a narrative of empowerment and accountability where, in part, empowerment comes from seeking accountability.
ATHENA partnered with Salamander Trust to hold values and preferences survey among nearly 1,000 women living with HIV globally, with regard to their sexual and reproductive health and human rights. The survey was led by a core group of 5 consultants bringing together expertise from different fields and shaped by a Global Reference Group (GRG) of 14 women living with HIV from diverse backgrounds and contexts around the world. The consultation will inform the World Health Organization (WHO) updated guidelines on sexual and reproductive health and human rights for women living with HIV.
Members of the GRG and the survey authors convened in Geneva along with representatives from the WHO, partners, and members of the Guidelines Development Committee to present the findings of the survey, “Building a Safe House on Firm Ground“. The work represents a trailblazing approach to guidelines development and ATHENA is working with Salamander Trust to present the methodology and results through peer-reviewed publications and at the Federation of International Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Congress in October 2015
This consultation called a “values and preferences survey” was commissioned by the WHO as they begin the process of updating their 2006 Guidelines on the SRH of women living with HIV. The consultation is not the first of its kind but maybe the biggest, in terms of the number of women living with HIV participating. More importantly, this is the first time that WHO has started the guidelines development process with a values and preferences survey.
ATHENA is a global policy partner in the Link Up project – a five-country project which aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of more than one million young people living with and affected by HIV in Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Uganda. We are working with partners and young women focal points in these five countries to ensure that the rights and voices of young women from key populations are heard in national, regional and global advocacy processes.
As part of Link Up, consortium members Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) and the ATHENA Network led a consultation with young people living with and affected by HIV. Nearly 800 people from every region of the world responded to a global online survey that collected quantitative and qualitative data in five languages, and over 400 young people participated in a series of community dialogues and focus groups with national partners in Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
You can read the global consultation report or summary papers for Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Myanmar , and Uganda.
Step Up, Link Up, Speak Up
Emerging from the Voices, Visions and Priorities consultation, ATHENA has worked in partnership with GYCA and Link Up implementing partners, to strengthen, enhance and amplify young people’s engagement in advocacy and policy processes. With support from GYCA and the IHAA, ATHENA and country partners in Uganda and Myanmar led the development of Step Up, Link Up, Speak Up: A Mentoring Tool and Workshop Facilitator’s Guide for youth mentoring programmes, and trialed the tools in two workshops with LInk Up youth advocates.
Pilot workshops in Kampala and Yangon
30 young people in Kampala and 28 young people in Yangon representing people living with HIV, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and trans* communities, people who use drugs, and other vulnerable young people took part in two pilot workshops to trial the Mentoring Tool and Workshop Facilitator’s Guide, and their feedback shaped the accompanying workshop Powerpoint presentation, which can be downloaded as a resource.
“Being involved in the mentoring workshop created a foundation for me as a young advocate. First of all, l went as a mentee and came out as a mentor which created a big impact in my life cause now l can advocate for my rights in my community. Through mentoring workshop am now able to mentor others, l learned how to come up with work plan including goals which are easy to achieve. I was able to understand and differentiate between advocacy and mentorship. I got friends through the workshop hence enabled me to share different ideas with them hence l gained knowledge. Through mentoring workshop guidelines and ideas, I am able to mentor people – mostly young key population in my community. Thanks to ATHENA and Jacqui Stevenson.” – Kampala workshop participant, Mariam
The purpose of implementing such a mentoring program is both to build the confidence of young people; to help identify and expand their knowledge, leadership skills, and abilities; and to create a system of sustainability within youth organizations. Mentoring catalyzes a ‘multiplier effect‘ among advocates — which is especially important among youth advocates as they ‘age out of the youth movement and move into mainstream advocacy.
Aiming High for Meaningful Youth Engagement
The Step Up, Link Up, Speak Up mentoring tools form part of a range of strategies trialed and embedded during the course of the Link Up project to model a good practice package of meaningful youth engagement. Based on principles and recommendations surfaced by Link Up youth advocates, Aiming High provides practical guidance for shifting the position of young people in the HIV response from being service recipients, to becoming leaders, researchers, advocates, mentors, implementers, educators, and providers — in other words to support young people to be the change they want to see.
The briefing paper, available in English and French, is accompanied by an Aiming High Scorecard (also available in French) which can be used by young people and other stakeholders to assess how well programmes and organizations are implementing meaningful youth engagement, based on Link Up’s Top Ten Strategies.
A film, Aiming High: Meaningful youth engagement was launched at the International AIDS Conference in July, and features youth advocates from each Link Up country talking about their experiences and achievements over the course of the Link Up project. Together with the Aiming High scorecard, it demonstrates how to involve and engage young people as partners and leaders in their work in the future. The film is available in English and French.
ATHENA Network and the Global Youth Coalition on HIV and AIDS (GYCA) are pleased to share three new issue briefs developed by adolescents and young people for adolescents and young people, in the Link Up Visions, Voices and Priorities series:
- Young people talk about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
- Young people talk about self-testing
- Adolescents talk about access to HIV treatment and care
A global youth SRHR-HIV consultation carried out by ATHENA and GYCA in 2013, during the start-up phase of the Link Up project, formed the cornerstone of Link Up global and national policy advocacy priorities and messages. Key findings were reported in Visions, Voices and Priorities.
As we drew towards the end of the Link Up project in 2016, we wanted to update the original consultation by including young people’s views and experiences regarding some of the new technologies, modalities, or priority issues emerging in the HIV response, that were not explicitly included in the original consultation. Youth and adolescent dialogues were carried out in all five Link Up countries, led by young people living with and most affected by HIV, and selected according to the perceived priority issues for each country. Standalone issue briefs were developed from each of the dialogue topics. A total of 108 adolescents and young people (54 F / 48 M / 4 TG) took part in the dialogues, including 34 adolescents and young people who sell sex; 31 adolescent and young men who have sex with men; and 27 young people living with HIV.
While PrEP is not yet available in any of the Link Up countries (Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Uganda), the HIV world is mobilizing around PrEP roll-out and it is paramount that young people — especially young people from key affected populations — should be part of these conversations, both as potential PrEP users, community educators, advocates, and peer navigators/supporters.
Read the PrEP issue brief here.
Self-testing is already widely used in some settings but has limited availability in other parts of the world. With UNAIDS’ 90-90-90 and Fast Track highlighting the centrality of HIV testing as the first entry point to treatment and eventually viral load suppression, a range of testing modalities to suit different people and different circumstances is needed. Stigma and discrimination and fear of involuntary disclosure still create a significant barrier to testing, especially for young people from key affected populations. And the direct and indirect costs of taking time out for regular HIV testing can also be prohibitive. Could self-testing provide an attractive and convenient alternative for young people?
Read the self-testing issue brief here.
And, while HIV-related mortality is declining for the general population, it continues to rise among adolescents. Globally, HIV-related mortality is the second highest cause of death among adolescents, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the highest. There is an urgent obligation to address and reverse this trend. Adolescents need the information, awareness, and autonomy to make and enact decisions around their own health, with support from a range of stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and service providers, and much greater understanding is needed of the complex needs, rights, and desires of adolescent people with regard to accessing HIV treatment and retention in care, promotion of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and support with transitioning to adult services.