Empowering women to prevent HIV/AIDS has received much lip service in recent years. However the time has come for a real focus on changing male attitudes and behaviours, says Helen Jackson, United Nations Population Fund Regional HIV/AIDS advisor.

"In the past the focus has been on the women's side and what they should be doing, but we need to focus on the other side of the gender equation and correct men's misconceptions and behaviour...at the moment male power is almost synonymous with multiple relations and power over women," said Jackson, author of AIDS Africa: Continent in Crisis.

She cited the example of a men's project in Botswana where male peer educators visit informal places such as beer halls to educate and discuss HIV/AIDS. "That type of discourse can help change attitudes," she told PlusNews.

Jackson warned, however, that it was not enough for male role models and peer workers to talk about safer sexual behaviour. "They need to reflect these changes in their personal lives, they have to act responsibly too."

Cultural practices, such as widow inheritance, had to be viewed in context before dismissing them. The practice had been created to ensure the survival of widows, but in the face of the pandemic, this goal could be achieved without the sexual obligations, she suggested.

Empowering women at all levels including their economic and human rights, was crucial. If women were better represented in law and had easier access to credit, this would indirectly help slow the epidemic, Jackson said.

The political violence in Zimbabwe compounded by the current food shortages, has turned the attention away from the country's HIV/AIDS epidemic, and not much has been said about how this will affect people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly women.

"There is an increasing number of disrupted people and movement between towns, farm rapes have been reported. There is an increasing number of women selling sex to survive.

"These are just a few of the problems. The epidemic will be spreading faster and the body's capacity to cope will be reduced, especially when coupled with all the stress, she added.

UNPFA was spearheading the expansion of female condom distribution in developing countries, as the organisation believed in giving women a choice. But the female condom was not just a female controlled device, it had to be promoted as a shared contraceptive method, Jackson said.

"Some men are threatened by it and see it as something that will enable women to become more promiscuous. We need to get rid of these attitudes," she added.

"The point is to make existing sexual behaviour safer anyway we can, that's what we're all aiming at."

Prevention campaigns had to address the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission by men having sex with men (MSM) despite the stigma, as MSM in Africa was more widely practiced than acknowledged.

"The concept has to be accepted, starting right from the political leadership down. Basic advocacy and information will reduce all the hypocrisy and increase tolerance about different sexuality and get rid of dangerous myths, Jackson said.

"Turning the epidemic around is proving extremely difficult partly because we haven't succeeded in opening up. AIDS is still seen as a disease of shame. People would rather focus on immediate events like wars and famine and relegate HIV/AIDS in the background," she added.

Source GENDER-AIDS list serve - archives available - click here.

Original Source: IRINplus News - September 3, 2002 - click here.