- Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Family Planning
- Women, Girls, and HIV
- Maternal Health
- U.S. Foreign Policy & Funding
- Why Women and Girls?
Women, Girls, and HIV
Photograph contributed by Washington DC photographer Aaron Clamage
We cannot put an end to HIV without prioritizing women. Women now account for more than half of the world’s population living with HIV, and HIV/AIDS is one of the leading causes of death for women of reproductive age (15-44). Women must be at the center of U.S. global HIV policies and programs if the U.S. government intends to sincerely address the HIV epidemic.
Prioritizing women means that HIV policies and programs are based on women’s health needs and human rights, unfettered by political agendas. HIV interventions must integrate family planning and other reproductive health services, without exception—family planning and HIV are intrinsically linked. HIV prevention strategies must promote tools women can use to protect themselves, such as female condoms. All women must have access to the tools and services necessary to protect themselves from HIV infection and plan their families.
It also requires that global HIV interventions are grounded in women’s rights. The HIV pandemic is dependent on the systemic human right violations, such as gender inequality and violence against women, that render women at a disproportionate risk of infection. To end HIV, U.S. global health policy has to address the things that are bigger than HIV. To end HIV, it has to start with women.
Additional resources:
A Woman-centered Approach to the U.S. Global Health Initiative
The U.S. Global Health Initiative and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Integration
Ribbons Without Rights Don't Save Lives
AIDS-free Generation? Not Without Women
Women are now the majority of people living with HIV worldwide. The HIV pandemic has changed--our responses have to change with it, or we'll never create an AIDS-free generation.
Take Action
Urge your Senators to Support International Family Planning Funding
Tell your Senators that you support full funding for international family planning and a permanent repeal of the Global Gag Rule.
Take Action
Tell your Representative to Support the United Nations
Congress is now considering a bill (H.R. 2829) that would effectively end our relationship with the United Nations. Act now and tell your Representative to oppose this harmful piece of legislation.
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Take Action on the Global Gag Rule
Join your voice with others and urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor the Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011, a bill that would create a legislative barrier to block attempts by a future administration to re-instate the Global Gag Rule.
Take Action
Raise your voice for the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act
Ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319), newly introduced legislation that promotes a truly comprehensive and integrated approach to U.S. international reproductive health programs.
Take Action
Tell your Representative to Oppose Elimination of International Family Planning Funding
The House is currently debating a spending bill (H.R. 1) that, as it stands, would drastically decrease funding for international family planning and reproductive health, global HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health programs and services. We need you to speak out for women's health and rights today!
Take Action
Help Make U.S. Global AIDS Programs Work for Women
Send a postcard to Ambassador Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and urge him to make U.S. global AIDS programs and policies work harder and better for women and girls worldwide.
Take Action
- Advocates for Youth
- AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families
- AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS)
- AIDS.org
- American Social Health Association (ASHA)
- amfAR
- Campaign to End AIDS
- Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
- Cervical Barrier Advancement Society
- Contraceptive Research and Development Program (CONRAD)
- EngenderHealth
- Global Action for Children
- Global AIDS Alliance
- HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies
- HIV InSite
- Housing Works
- International AIDS Society
- International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
- International AIDS Women Caucus
- International Community of Women Living with AIDS (ICW)
- International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO)
- International HIV/AIDS Alliance
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)
- JHPIEGO
- PEPFAR Watch
- Population Reference Bureau
- Prevention Now!
- Reproductive Health Matters
- The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
- The Female Health Company
- The Global Campaign for Microbicides
- Women, Children and HIV
Source60,000 - The number of maternal deaths attributed to HIV in 2008.
Source52% - Women make up approximately 52% of the total global population living with HIV.
Source8 - In sub-Saharan Africa, women 15-24 years old are 8 times more likely than men to be HIV positive.
Source$15 billion - Launched in 2003 by President George W. Bush, PEPFAR pledged $15 billion over 5 years to combat global HIV/AIDS.
Source$48 billion - PEPFAR was reauthorized on July 30, 2008 and authorized $48 billion through fiscal year 2013.
Source7,400 - Globally, there are 7,400 new HIV infections every day.
Source340 million - Each year there are 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Source33.3 million - Worldwide there are approximately 33.3 million people living with HIV.
Source#1 - Globally, HIV is the leading cause of death and disease in women of reproductive age.
Source15.9 million - Of the 33.3 million adults living with HIV in 2009, 15.9 million were women.
The Promise of MPTs: An Integrated Approach to Women’s Health
In recent years, the global community has intensified its focus on women’s health and rights. This reflects a universal recognition that women and girls are fundamental to the health and well-being of societies worldwide — and that we still have significant challenges to overcome before reaching essential development goals.
The New York Times: High Court Weighs Dispute Over AIDS Funding
The Supreme Court wrestled Monday with the First Amendment implications of a policy that forces private health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition to get AIDS funding. The court appeared divided, and not along ideological lines, in an argument over whether the anti-prostitution pledge violates the health groups' constitutional rights.
Huffington Post: The Right to Fight AIDS
The Supreme Court today will hear a case that will decide the basic rights of groups fighting HIV. The case --Agency for International Development, Et. Al., v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., Et. Al.--centers on a policy that requires organizations to adopt the U.S. government's point of view as a condition of receiving U.S. global HIV/AIDS funds. Not surprisingly, it is being challenged on grounds that it violates the First Amendment.
HIV in breastmilk spikes at weaning
The amount of HIV in an infected mother’s breast milk spikes when weaning begins, according to a study published today in Science Translational Medicine1. The findings are likely to add urgency to efforts to ensure that infected mothers without access to formula take antiretroviral drugs throughout and beyond the time that they wean their infants.
Alicia Keys campaigns for HIV education
Alicia Keys says she wants to spark a global conversation about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The Grammy Award-winning singer met with women who are part of an HIV program at United Medical Center in the nation’s capital Monday to discuss their experiences with the virus, including the fear and stigma associated with the disease.
Nigeria: Arrests of Sex Workers Hampers Control of HIV Rates
Continued clampdown on commercial sex workers, intravenous drug users (IDUs) and men who have sex with men in the FCT is hampering efforts to control infection rates of HIV/AIDS, proponents lament. Female sex workers, drug users and men who sleep with men (MSM) are three of the highest-risk group of HIV in the FCT, and rates of infection among them is interwoven with that of the general public, said Angela Emenalo, community mobilisation officer at FCT Agency for Control of AIDS (FACA).
One-in-four deaths in pregnancy due to HIV in worst-affected countries
One-in-four pregnancy-related deaths is due to HIV in countries with a high HIV prevalence, a meta-analysis of 23 studies shows. HIV-infected women have eight times the risk of a pregnancy-related death compared to uninfected women (pooled relative risk [RR]: 7.75, 95% CI: 5.37-11.16), according to results from the meta-analysis published in the advance online edition of AIDS.
Huffington Post: Why the Global Fund Is a Terrific Investment
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it will need $15 billion to continue its life-saving work. If the world comes together to meet this replenishment goal, it will build on one of its greatest achievements of the past decade by saving millions more lives. HIV, TB and malaria are three of the world's biggest killers, but thanks to the Global Fund we are starting to make significant progress in controlling them.
U.S. Global HIV Policy: Combination Prevention
This paper outlines why the U.S. must support a true combination prevention strategy, one that scales up proven biomedical tools, integrates sexual and reproductive health services into HIV prevention, and addresses social barriers to HIV prevention.
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File Under: Policy Briefs
Infographic: AIDS-free Generation? Not Without Women
We can't create an AIDS-free generation without women: Visualize the numbers.
View the Infographic
File Under: Fact Sheets
Ficha técnica: ¿Qué tiene que ver la planificación familiar con el VIH? Todo.
La planificación familiar voluntaria es un componente indispensable de la prevención y el tratamiento del VIH.
Cargar PDFFile Under: Fact Sheets
What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.
Voluntary family planning is an indispensible component of HIV prevention and treatment.
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Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women’s Health
Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women's Health, summarizes U.S. support for female condoms, identifies barriers, and offers concrete recommendations for improving U.S. efforts to increase access and availability of female condoms.
Download this PDFFile Under: Research Documents
Policy Recommendations: Married Women and HIV: Comprehensive Prevention
In the absence of community-based efforts to alter the social structures that promote infidelity, public health programs which aim to reduce married women’s risk by telling men to be faithful will not succeed.
Download this PDFFile Under: Fact Sheets
Research Summary: Marital Sex and the HIV Risk for Women Worldwide
Globally, women’s risk of contracting HIV is heightened if they are married, largely due to men’s extramarital sexual relationships. Despite this clear risk, current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV fall far short of protecting married women.
Marital Sex and HIV/AIDSFile Under: Fact Sheets
Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and the Sex Sector
Current U.S. foreign policy relating to adults in the sex sector violates basic human rights, distracts from effective anti-trafficking efforts, and directly impedes global health programs intended to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.
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Women, Girls, and HIV Topics
Infographic: Women and HIV
Visualize the numbers
Integrating HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
HIV prevention and treatment is intrinsically linked to sexual and reproductive health. However, PEPFAR programming addresses these critical health issues in isolation.
Female Condoms: Dual Protection
The female condom is currently the only available HIV-prevention and family-planning method that women can initiate themselves. Yet, globally, female condoms continue to be underfunded and underused because of cost, stigma, and a lack of political will.
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