06 Dec 2016

The director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team Professor Sheila Tlou has urged women to advocate for women to keep the girl child in school to avoid new infections of HIV.

Prof. Tlou said this when addressing the 2016 BDP Women's Wing General Assembly in Mahalapye on Friday (December 2).

She said reducing new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women to below 100 000 per year by 2020 requires comprehensive approaches tailored to local context, and equally requires the resources to make change happen.

She noted that some of the strategies for accelerating progress in preventing HIV among adolescents and treating those who are already infected includes amongst others investing in innovation and in locally grown solutions.

She said also by strengthening data collection, ending gender discrimination including gender based violence and countering stigma.

Prof. Tlou said prioritising efforts to address adolescents' vulnerabilities by providing combination prevention efforts including pre- exposure prophylaxis, cash transfers and comprehensive sexuality education.

She said when women and girls are strengthened and empowered to protect themselves from HIV, to make decisions about their own health amongst others then they could be sure of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Further, she noted that as the country celebrates women, they celebrate women in general and celebrate their central role in the health of families and communities.

She said with regard to the Millennium Development Goal 3, of promoting gender equality and empowering women, progress has been slow with persistent gender disparities in some regions in secondary and tertiary education enrolment.

She said also lack of economic empowerment, autonomy and independence for women, including a lack of integration into the formal economy, unequal access to full and productive employment and decent work, underrepresentation in non-agricultural wage employment and overrepresentation in low paid jobs and gender stereotyped jobs.

Prof. Tlou said despite progress, the low proportion and unequal participation and representation of women at all levels of decision making. ENDS