By Christian Benoni

Governments must ensure adequate resource allocation to creating awareness of cultural attitudes that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS, activists are demanding.

“Our governments need to put money to our health and not guns,” Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda general secretary of the Young Women Christian Association said, referring to the huge budgets allocated to defence departments in relation to meagre funds for health sectors. Despite a 2001 pledge by African leaders to increase the health budget to 15 percent, many countries are yet to reach this target.

Increased funds for HIV/AIDS, it was agreed, means investing in sexual and reproductive health rights, particularly for young women who are at greater risk of contracting the disease. In Africa, prevalence among young women aged between 15 and 24 years is three times higher than among men in the same age bracket.

“Young people need constant information about protection. They need increased access to sexual and reproductive health services and supplies including female condoms,” Anne Alinda of the Simama Vijana (Stand Up Youth) group in Kenya tells Terraviva.

A UNAIDS framework launched at the CSW seeks to fast-track country action towards eliminating the imbalances. The Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV 2010-2014, as the framework is called, recommends similar action, but health systems of many African countries have been characterised by massive stock-outs of reproductive health supplies, compromising safe sex practices.

It is expected that countries will address these gaps and effectively tackle gender inequalities by HIV/AIDS, to be able to score highly on the scorecard within the framework. A chart will list progress by countries.