Gendering National Strategic Plans
ATHENA and the Gender Equality and HIV Prevention Project of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) of the University of KwaZulu Natal have partnered to develop a Review of Women, Girls, and Gender Equality in National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa.
The Review includes:
1) A workshop with regional partners to assess lessons learned in engaging with national strategic processes around HIV and AIDS
2) The production of a collaborative “Framework to Address Women, Girls, and Gender Equality in National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS”
3) An assessment of National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa (report forthcoming)
4) Capacity strengthening workshops with countries with plans under development or review (planned for 2011-2012)
Why Integrate Gender into NSPs?
National Strategic Plans (NSPs) have the potential to serve as influential platforms for articulating and supporting a gender responsive HIV and AIDS agenda. However, in reality, NSPs often fall short of integrating gender responsive approaches and language in their recommendations for policy and programming (prevention, treatment, care, and support) or insufficiently operationalise these gender directives.
Rationale for the HEARD-ATHENA Engendering NSPs Project
In line with supporting the more effective engendering of the next generation of NSPs, HEARD and ATHENA embarked on a project with the dual objectives of firstly, developing a framework for engendering NSPs and secondly assessing current Southern and Eastern African NSPs against this framework. The initial phase of this project, in mid-2010, entailed a critical scan of the literature on integrating gender into NSPs and evidence for best practice at the intersection of gender, human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV. We sought to compliment the many ongoing processes of engendering NSPs, which have successfully defined why it is important to address gender, what key issues require reflection, and how to embark on the engendering process. For instance, the UNAIDS Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV encapsulates the key global issues and strategies for addressing the needs and rights of women and girls within the context of HIV. However, we identified that there was still a space and need for a short, user-friendly guideline for actually crafting gender responsive NSPs—and that could also be used as an accountability tool for assessment and related advocacy by civil society. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action recognises the development of new NSPs as a strategic opportunity for supporting women’s rights and gender equality.
Therefore, we envision the NSP framework and subsequent assessments as tools for effectively addressing women and girls in the context of HIV. The framework and assessments will assist Southern and Eastern African countries to improve the gender responsiveness of NSPs, while also serving as an advocacy and accountability tool for key civil society partners. Ultimately, HEARD and ATHENA view the engendering NSP project as among several key contributions towards the overarching goal of advancing women’s rights and gender equality in Southern and Eastern Africa.
