In Africa, 74 per cent of young people with HIV are women, according to ActionAid, an international development agency whose aim is to fight poverty and injustice worldwide. In a panel discussion held at United Nations Headquarters on 28 February 2007, speakers presented compelling new evidence on the link between girls' education and HIV/AIDS prevention.

"In many societies, women are financially and economically dependent on their male partners, which increases the risks of HIV/AIDS infection", said Dr. Pauline Muchina, Senior Women and AIDS Advocacy Officer at the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). She mentioned that girls and women in her country, Kenya, have no rights to inherit property from their parents or husbands; instead, they are treated as property and are forced to remarry when their husbands die. If women are socially and economically empowered, Dr. Muchina said, they can negotiate fidelity and safe sex with their partners, as well as avoid trading sex for money, food or shelter. She added that "if we were to deal with gender inequality and discrimination, we would cut HIV by more than half".

Quoting South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela, Dr. Muchina said education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. "Education is a weapon that the world cannot do without in the fight against AIDS", Dr. Muchina said, adding that women and girls "don't have the education they need to keep themselves safe from HIV infection. We have to provide education to girls." She also called for more male involvement in the fight against gender inequality and discrimination, and political leadership from Governments in protecting women and girls from HIV/AIDS.

Rima Salah UN photo/Rick Bajornas

Rima Salah, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund, told the UN Chronicle that UNICEF believes girls' education is power. "Putting girls into school alone does not help. We need to teach them to say no [to unprotected sex] and to depend on themselves", she said, pointing out that access to school education and improving the curriculum are equally important. With the Fund's help, around 60 countries all over the world, including Egypt, Botswana and Uganda, have achieved great efforts in closing the education gaps between boys and girls. "Many more girls are in school now, but we have to do more", such as reducing education fees and improving school environment and curricula, Ms. Salah concluded.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.unaids.org or http://www.unicef.org