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HIV/AIDS and Food Insecurity in Southern Africa - December 2002
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5. Women and girls are worst hit by HIV/AIDS
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HIV/AIDS increasingly and disproportionately affects women and adolescent girls in Southern Africa. Traditional power relations between men and women means that women and adolescent girls are less able to negotiate concerns about their sexuality and are therefore less able to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection. Girls are at high risk of coercive sex and violence. HIV prevalence among adolescent girls is outpacing that of all other age groups and of males. The situation is compounded by the stigma and discrimination faced by women with HIV/AIDS, who often face eviction from their homes if they disclose their status.
Women in Southern Africa are also the main source of agricultural subsistence labour. In HIV-affected households, food production can be reduced by up to 60 per cent when a major part of women's time and energy turns to caring for HIV/AIDS-infected family members. This burden is also increasingly affecting elderly women who take on the care of orphans left behind by the deaths of their sons and daughters.
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