PEPFAR Workshop Explores Gender Dimensions of HIV/AIDS Programs

April 11, 2007
No. 21/07 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2007 (Addis Ababa) – The Population Council, an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in New York, led a workshop today to discuss ways to better support adolescent girls in HIV/AIDS programs with support from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

The workshop, entitled “Gender Dimensions of HIV and Adolescent Programming in Ethiopia” brought together governmental and non-governmental organizations working on HIV/AIDS and was opened by Her Excellency Aster Mamo, Minister of Youth and Sport.  A special presentation was made by Judith Bruce, gender programming expert and senior associate with The Population Council in New York.

In Ethiopia, existing adolescent programs that target adolescents, such as peer education and youth centers, reach mainly older, male, in-school adolescents, but tend to miss less advantaged, younger, female, out-of-school youth.  Today’s workshop explored ways to direct HIV/AIDS programs toward special sub-groups among Ethiopian youth, such as rural-to-urban migrants, domestic workers, and married adolescents. 

Current data highlight the disadvantaged status of girls in Ethiopia.  Results from the 2005 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey indicated that the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia is increasingly centered in urban areas and among females.  Nearly 8 percent of urban women are HIV positive, compared to 2 percent of urban men.  Moreover, HIV affects younger women who become infected during their adolescent and young adult years.  Among young women in Addis Ababa aged 25 to 29, an estimated 12.2 percent are HIV positive.  Adolescent HIV/AIDS programs can do more to address these disparities, by reaching those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

The Population Council seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world, and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources.  The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacity in developing countries.

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