In Africa, AIDS Has a Woman's Face

"A combination of famine and AIDS is threatening the backbone of Africa -- the women who keep African societies going and whose work makes up the economic foundation of rural communities. ...

"In famines before the AIDS crisis, women proved more resilient than men. ... Because droughts happened once a decade or so, women who had experienced previous droughts were able to pass on survival techniques to younger women. ...

"But today, as AIDS is eroding the health of Africa's women, it is eroding the skills, experience and networks that keep their families and communities going. Even before falling ill, a woman will often have to care for a sick husband, thereby reducing the time she can devote to planning, harvesting and marketing crops. When her husband dies, she is often deprived of credit, distribution networks or land rights. When she dies, the household will risk collapsing completely. ...

"Because this crisis is different from past famines, we must look beyond relief measures of the past. Merely shipping food is not enough. Our effort will have to combine food assistance and new approaches to farming with treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. It will require creating early-warning and analysis systems that monitor both HIV infection rates and famine indicators. It will require new agricultural techniques, appropriate to a depleted work force. It will require a renewed effort to wipe out HIV-related stigma and silence.

"It will require innovative, large-scale ways to care for orphans, with specific measures that enable children in AIDS-affected communities to stay in school. Education and prevention are still the most powerful weapons against the spread of HIV. Above all, this new international effort must put women at the center of our strategy to fight AIDS.

"Experience suggests that there is reason to hope. The recent United Nations report shows HIV infection rates in Uganda continue to decline. In South Africa, infection rates for women under 20 have started to decrease. In Zambia, HIV rates show signs of dropping among women in urban areas and younger women in rural areas. In Ethiopia, infection levels have fallen among young women in the center of Addis Ababa.

"We can and must build on those successes and replicate them elsewhere. For that, we need leadership, partnership and imagination from the international community and African governments. If we want to save Africa from two catastrophes, we would do well to focus on saving Africa's women."

The author is secretary-general of the UN.

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