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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

This presentation provides an overview of the gender inequality and its impact on women in relation to HIV/AIDS. It discusses the challenges faced by women and the department's response to address these issues.

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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

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  1. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Presentation to the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Status of Women Public Hearings on HIV/AIDS 25 September 2001

  2. Overview • Gender inequality and HIV/AIDS • Impact of HIV/AIDS on women • Response of the Department • Challenges

  3. Gender and HIV/AIDS • Gender inequality: • Increase women’s risk of contracting HIV/AIDS • Limit women’s access to resources for coping with HIV/AIDS • Increase women’s share of burden • HIV/AIDS perpetuates and exacerbates gender inequality

  4. Women and Poverty • Women are more likely to poor: • Studies on poverty in SA show that the poorest households are usually headed by women • Education opportunities for girls are increasing, but not commensurate with opportunities for boys • Women in employment are likely to earn less than their male counterparts

  5. Violence against women • Women and girls are more likely to be victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse than men • Women and girls are more likely to be victims of rape than men

  6. Impact of HIV/AIDS on women • Increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS: • Reports on other countries suggest higher infection rates amongst teenage girls and young women than their male counterparts • Reports suggest that this derives from women’s social and economic status relative to men

  7. Impact of HIV/AIDS on women • Infected women are likely to: • Lose jobs if they had them • Stigmatised as spreaders of HIV/AIDS • No access to social assistance other than applying for disability grants for themselves of Child Support Grant if they have children under 7 years • Unless they have access to food and health care, their life expectancy is reduced drastically. Impact extends to their children • Fear of what will happen to their children when they die

  8. Impact of HIV/AIDS on women • Women are expected to be the caregivers: • Disruption of education of girls • Loss of jobs/reduced earnings • Grandmothers’ have to support grandchildren often on a single social grant

  9. Department’s Response • Responses attempt to address the immediate needs of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS as well as the broader issue of gender inequality • Responses are ‘mainstreamed’ in Department’s framework for combating HIV/AIDS • Department’s responses are informed by interactions with affected women and communities

  10. Department’s Response • Home-Based/Community-Based Care • Poverty alleviation programmes focused on HIV/AIDS and economic empowerment of women • Advocacy campaigns and partnerships with Women (including young women) • Improving access to social assistance • Victim Empowerment and Domestic Violence • Training and building capability • Research and information

  11. Home-Based and Community-Based Care • 3 programmes: • Joint projects with Department of Health and provinces • Projects funded and managed by National Department using HIV/AIDS funds (5 projects) • National Projects funded from Poverty Relief Fund – 17 projects (Provinces also have HIV/AIDS related projects funded from Poverty Relief Fund)

  12. Home-Based and Community-Based Care • Target groups are vulnerable children and women • Assistance provided to women: • Material assistance (mainly food) • Counseling and support groups • Accessing social assistance, welfare services and poverty alleviation programmes • Home-based care for women and their families • Information to assist women as caregivers • Life skills to prevent infection

  13. Coverage of Joint Projects

  14. Coverage of Joint Projects

  15. Coverage of Joint Projects

  16. Poverty Relief Programme • PRP has targeted women since its inception. About two-thirds of beneficiaries of Department’s programme are women. • From 1998/99 to 2000/2001: • Managed R363 million in PRP funds • 2868 projects to value of R329.795 m • Payments of R289.913 m to projects

  17. Poverty Relief Programme • In 2000/2001: • Transferred R9.73 million to HIV/AIDS projects initiated by communities and Faith-Based Organisations • Women’s Flagship Programme: • Funded from PRP and special allocation for Flagship Programme • 16 Projects operating (2 per province, except KZN and Northern Cape) • 801 women and 913 children benefiting

  18. Poverty Relief Programme • 2001/02 to 2003/04: • Support income-generation activities for women in rural areas (100 projects) • Establish 144 rural food production clusters of 100 households each, with emphasis on households affected by HIV/AIDS • Support 100 community-based projects providing care and support for households affected by HIV/AIDS

  19. Social Assistance • Women are significant proportion of social assistance beneficiaries either directly or through their role as caregivers • Information and communication campaigns to inform women about social grants, especially Child Support Grant • Limitations of coverage of grants in context of HIV/AIDS are being investigated by Committee of Inquiry into Comprehensive Social Security • Improving administration of social security

  20. Victim Empowerment • VEP provides care and support and life skills for women (and children) who are subjected to abuse • 66 projects at provincial level providing 24hr one-stop service for women (reach 2500 per month) • 34 National Projects include: • Trained 225 social workers and lay counselors in Domestic Violence Act • Directory of Services produced • Survey on shelters for abused women

  21. Advocacy work & Partnerships • 16 Days of Activism on “No violence against women” includes men as partners in combating violence against women and sharing responsibility to reduce HIV/AIDS • Working on partnership with LoveLife: • Training girls and boys as ‘groundbreakers’ to promote HIV/AIDS awareness • Life skills training • Involving youth in Home-Based and Community-Based Care Programmes

  22. Advocacy work & Partnerships • Partnerships with aid organisations • Partnership with Faith-Based Organisations: • Already supporting HIV/AIDS projects of FBOs • Working with FBOs to involve them more comprehensively in HIV/AIDS programmes

  23. Building capacity • Home-Based Care and Poverty Relief Programmes include building capacity of women • Launched HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Programme for government officials – includes understanding impact of HIV/AIDS on women • Requests received to extend programme to NGOs and CBOs

  24. Information Base • Started audit/survey of all HBC and CBC projects in country (with Department of Health) • Survey identifies services offered, target groups, sources of funding, governance structures, etc • Survey will be used to scale up response and identify areas not covered • Survey will serve as basis for monitoring system

  25. Budget Allocation

  26. Budget Allocation • Women also benefit through social assistance: • Child Support Grant – 1 078 884 beneficiaries at 1 April 2001, paid R117.809 million in 2000/2001 • Aged Pension – 1 882 188 beneficiaries at 1 April 2001. Assuming 50% are women, benefits to women were R522.423 million • Care dependency grant – 30 269 beneficiaries at 1 April 2001, paid R18.76 million

  27. Challenges and Responses • Addressing the problem of stigma • Provide tangible assistance to people affected (access to social grants, counseling, health care, etc) • Education of communities where HBC and CBC projects are located • Support to National campaigns: • Young men as partners in fight • Faith-Based Organisations

  28. Challenges and Responses • Scaling up response to meet demand • Direct more support to community-initiated projects • Strengthen partnership with FBOs • Other partnerships with business and labour • Promoting volunteerism and involvement of youth

  29. Challenges and Responses • Ensuring protection of children • Prioritise orphans and infected children in new Child Care legislation • National guidelines and protocols to apply to all HBC and CBC projects funded by government

  30. Challenges and Responses • Access to social assistance • Interim national procedures for dealing with applications for disability grants and social relief in distress • Mechanisms to check that participants who are eligible for social assistance receive grants • Long term options on grants being investigated by Committee on Social Security

  31. Challenges and Responses • Food security: • Strengthen food security component of HBC and CBC Programme • Integrated Food Security Strategy being developed by government • Budgetary issues: • Discussions with Treasury on funding for HBC and increasing social relief budgets • Lack of funding for Victim Empowerment Programme

  32. Concluding Remarks • Combating HIV/AIDS and its impact on women requires us to change the daily reality of many women: • Their access to resources they need to fight poverty • Their status in society

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