Women Vital in Global Fight Against AIDS

Vienna, Austria–– While funding for HIV prevention and treatment has reached billions of international dollars, a new study conducted by the Huairou Commission suggests that volunteer care and support makes a huge – and largely unrecognized – economic contribution to the response.

Research in six countries shows that tens of thousands of unpaid female caregivers between the ages of 20 and 49 routinely donate on average 69 hours per month to care for the sick and vulnerable––a donation of time worth millions of dollars each month.

The study, Compensation for Contributions: Creating an enabling policy and institutional framework for home-based care, was conducted by caregivers, care giving organizations and the Huairou Commission in six countries to quantify unpaid labor contributions and highlight the gaps that exist between AIDS policies and working conditions on the ground. The countries studied were: Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi,Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

Calculating the number of hours worked into wages in each country the study found, for example, that in Kenya where volunteers work an average of 24.4 hours per week, professional wages would translate into KShs 13,704 (US$168.46) per caregiver per month.

“If we estimate the unpaid care labor force in Kenya to be 16,000, the government wage scale per month to compensate these women would be US$844,640 and private wages would be US$2,695,360,” said Debbie Budlender, the chief researcher for the project. “In Malawi, where volunteers work an average of 8.2 hours per week, monthly compensation would average MK1947.70 (US$12.82) while in South Africa, 22.2 hours per week would translate into R780.44 (US$101.82) monthly.”

“Caregivers understand that AIDS is not just a health concern but a complex development issue with local and global economic, human rights and gender implications,” said Winnie Byanyima, director of the Gender Team, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP.

“The findings from this study are an important platform for galvanizing government and donor recognition of caregivers’ relentless contributions to coping with the HIV epidemic, including their vital work as community development change agents locally and globally.”

The study is one of the initiatives of the five-year-old Home-Based Care Alliance, active in 7 countries. The network addresses the marginalization of volunteer caregivers in AIDS and fiscal policy by building dialogue and collaboration with heath care systems and policy decision-makers. In Kenya, for example, district governments and hospitals have issued formal letters of recognition and invited caregivers to participate in the Kenya National AIDS Strategic Planning process for the next five years. Most striking, in
Uganda, the Kampala City Council has committed to include compensation for caregivers and community health workers in its next fiscal year budget. Verbal commitments have been made to ensure the participation of home-based caregivers in newly forming Village Health Teams.

Compensation for Contributions was conducted in partnership with six care giving organizations in Africa: Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group, Cameroon; GROOTS Kenya; Coalition of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, Malawi; International Women’s Communication Centre, Nigeria; Land Access Movement, South Africa; and the Uganda Community-Based Organization for Child Welfare.

The study was sponsored by the United Nations Development Program/Japan Partnership Fund (WID/GAD).

For a full copy of the study, please go to: www.groots.org