Bua Briefs 10 of 2012

Working together, we are Turning the Tideagainst HIV and AIDS.

• On 1 December 2009, President Jacob Zuma called on each South African to take personal responsibility for their health and well-being.
• Government put in place policies that will support the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to those in need. These policies became law on 1 April 2010.
• President Zuma called on each and every South African to demonstrate that they are responsible by taking an HIV test. Since then, more than 13 million South Africans have shown that “I am Responsible” by testing for HIV and more than seven million have been screened for TB.
• On 1 December 2011, the Deputy President of South Africa Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, launched the most important document that now guides South Africa’s response towards an HIV- and TB-free society. National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS, STIs and TB 2012 –2016.
• South Africa has a number of progressive laws and policies in support of the multisectoral response to HIV.
• South Africa has aggressively implemented new policies to increase universal access to free antiretroviral therapy.
• The number of persons who started ART in 2010 and 2011 has more than doubled. By September 2011, a cumulative total of 1,6 million patients had been initiated on ART.
• We aim to ensure that access to ART be increased to 2,5 million South Africans by 2014.
• Our national HIV counselling and testing campaign reached 13,7 million people against a target of 15 million by June 2011.
• The Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Programme is showing signs of success in halting the further spread of HIV.
• Better procurement processes have insured a 53% reduction in the price of antiretroviral medicines.

The dramatic scale-up of HIV programmes has begun to reverse the spread of HIV.

• Never has the world been more committed and more united to fight the scourge of HIV and AIDS.  
• Fewer people are dying of AIDS-related causes. In low- and middle-income countries, ART has averted 2,5 million deaths since 1995.
• ART has insured that millions of people with HIV are living productive and full lives.
• Global awareness of the continuing impact of HIV and AIDS is extremely high and the conference will serve to re-energise global, national, and local responses to the pandemic.
• The conference will ensure that recent momentous scientific advances are harnessed into action that will address means to end the pandemic.

Uniting around the shared vision of a world with zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

• The global AIDS response faces crippling financial challenges that threaten our progress. The first-ever decline in HIV funding in 2010, has the potential to jeopardise the capacity of the international community to close access gaps and sustain progress in coming years.
• Continued work is needed to maximise synergies and impact between HIV and broader health and development programmes.
• Slowing the rate of sexual transmission is vital to achieving the vision of a world with zero new infections, as sexual transmission remains the primary mode of transmission globally.
• Evidence that ART substantially reduces the risk of transmission underscores the need to enhance the integration of programming for HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

• The 19th International AIDS Conference brings together the world’s scientific experts to catalyse and advance scientific knowledge about HIV.
• The conference presents a chance to assess how far we have come, evaluate recent scientific developments and lessons learnt, and collectively chart a course forward.
• The most recent research findings will be presented  to promote and enhance scientific collaborations around the world.
• The conference will ensure that global awareness of the continuing impact of HIV and AIDS is increased, while also re-energising global, national and local responses to the pandemic through public health practice, science, policy, education, the media and other means.
• It will also serve to advance scientific progress in areas that have the potential to make significant gains in the ability to prevent and treat HIV infection.
• As it has been done for the past six years, the conference will be evaluated in line with the internationally recognised Code of Ethics. Key findings and recommendations will be documented in an Evaluation Report, which will be posted on the conference website in December 2012.

Since the onset of democracy, South Africa has taken bold steps to institutionalise gender equality and women empowerment

• Two decades on, there is an increase in numbers of women in Parliament and government.
• This development can be attributed to the introduction of important legislation that empowers women, including the establishment of statutory bodies and a Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities to advance equality.
• The statutory and policy architecture for gender equality in the country is comprehensive and multidimensional, with individual laws and policy overlapping to provide seamless protection of the rights of women and girls.
• Progressive legislation includes the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Domestic Violence Act, Sexual Offences Act and the Civil Union Act, among others.
• Government is also in the process of finalising the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill, which will ensure compliance both within government and the private sector with measures intended to promote women empowerment and gender equality.
• The National Gender Machinery (NGM), as outlined in the 2000 South African National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality is “an integrated package” of structures located at various levels of state, civil society and within the statutory bodies, in particular the Commission for Gender Equality.
• The recently formed Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities is a central coordinating point for the advancement and protection of the rights of women, children and persons with disabilities.
• The Public Service adopted a Gender Management System – a network of structures, mechanisms and processes – that enables the mainstreaming of gender across government. The Eight Principle Plan for Heads of Departments provides a mandate to see that gender equality becomes a goal in all aspects of government departments.

National indicators show that the equality gap has decreased

• The achievement of gender parity in schooling enrolments.
• Progress in addressing the primary healthcare needs of women and girls; (for example, the decline in child mortality and mother-to-child transmission of HIV rates demonstrates the successes of government programmes).
• Combating violent crimes against women and children identified as a priority.
• Specialised courts to deal with sexual offences instituted with staff working at these courts empowered with specialised skills.
• Progressive amendments to the Sexual Offences Act.
• A comprehensive anti-poverty strategy that addresses increased feminised poverty.
• The impact of social grants on women’s poverty.
• Significant progress in achieving gender parity at senior management level within the Public Service.
• Great strides in the representation of women at political and decision-making levels, placing South Africa currently sixth on the Global Report Index. A number of civil-society, non-governmental and research organisations working in the field of gender equality with significant successes in advocating for and shaping gender legislation; influencing policies and providing evidence of successful methodologies.

There is only one society, and every person and institution must “Play Your Part” to join forces to eradicate gender inequality

• Our Constitution (1996) recognises women as equal citizens, with equal rights and responsibilities.
• Media portrayal of women also impacts on how young girls perceive themselves and makes it difficult for society not to be influenced by the overwhelming message to objectify women.
• Institutions of democracy must prioritise addressing issues facing women, especially gender-based violence and representation of women in our economy and society.
• In line with government’s vision of equity across all institutions, a critical approach is gender mainstreaming, which is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes.
• Government calls on all South Africans and organisations to action for partnerships that gives expression to our commitment in ensuring that women become fully functioning agents in our developmental agenda.

• Government has endorsed a number of legislations to create an enabling environment for women, and to improve their participation in income-generating activities in the economy since 1994.
• Government is committed to ensuring that it takes collective action for the active development and implementation of policies and practices that address the needs of poor women.
• The Labour Force Survey (Stats SA, 2011) demonstrates the inequalities which exist in the formal economy where women dominate in sectors regarded as traditionally “soft and female,” such as social services, while fewer women can be found in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as mining and engineering.
• Female-headed household are generally much poorer than men, and are more likely to live below R570 a month. This is especially the case in the rural areas and thus renders women more vulnerable to food insecurity.

• The Agricultural Women Empowerment Programme includes the Agricultural Development Finance Programme. A total number of 29 538 community members benefitted from the cooperative initiatives as community projects. Of these, 20 078 are women against 9 460 men across all provinces.
• The Micro Agricultural Finance Institution of South Africa Programme benefitted 7 229 people to an amount of R65 million. Of this, 744 were women. A total of R22 222 333, 00 was allocated for various projects under women’s leadership. Land Care projects are responsible for empowering communities targeting women and children. A total number of 634 518 community members benefitted from these programmes, of whom 411 167 were women as against 223 351 men.
• Food security measures included a total number of 43 200 community projects and 162 food production packs. A total number of 157 694 community members benefitted from these projects across the country. Of these, 115 929 were women as against 36 597 men.
• The Comprehensive and Agricultural Support Programme benefitted a total number of 165 679 community members. Of these, 28 709 were women against 55 075 men, from all nine provinces.
• Government is working on engendering the New Growth Path Framework and the Green Fund so that these initiatives are gender and disability responsive and that women and people with disabilities benefit from these initiatives, including the Jobs Fund.

• Speak out against woman and child abuse. Encourage silent female victims to talk about abuse and ensure that they get help.
• Men are critical partners in the fight against the abuse of women and children.
• Families must stick together to create a safe environment for women and children. Parents and adults: don’t expose your children to sexual and violent material such as pornography, etc.
• Government has identified factors such as law reform on bail, sentencing, victim empowerment, capacity-building, extending access to courts to previously disadvantaged areas and integrated responses, as critical pillars of the fight to end violence against women.
• Thuthuzela care centres were introduced as part of South Africa’s Anti-Rape Strategy, aiming to reduce secondary victimisation, improve conviction rates and reduce the cycle time for finalisation of cases.
• These 24-hour one-stop centres where rape victims have access to all services such as the police, counselling, doctors, court preparation and prosecution. During 2009, a total of 10 213 matters were reported at the Thuthuzela care centres.
• The Sexual Offences and Crime Unit in the National Prosecuting Authority highlights that in 2010/11 there was an increase in capacitation of prosecutors with a total of 180 prosecutors trained on the comprehensive manual on maintenance matters in line with the Maintenance Act and latest developments in law, 349 prosecutors trained on the Child Justice Act, 102 prosecutors received integrated domestic violence skills manual training and 79 prosecutors were trained on human trafficking-related topics.
• Government has established a task team to investigate the resuscitation of sexual offences courts, which have shown impressive conviction rates in certain parts of the country in the past.
• The task team will look into practical steps that will ensure that these courts benefit the entire population and not selected communities as was the practice in the piloted sites.
• Processes are underway to establish the number of sexual offences cases, which have been put on hold to identify additional capacity that may be required through the case-backlog courts.
• Government is confident that the re-introduction of family violence, child protection and sexual offences units in the police, as well as the establishment of the intersectoral task team to look into the viability of prioritising such cases through specialised sexual offences courts will ensure that we deal with these heinous crimes effectively.
• The approval of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2010 by the National Assembly will strengthen the fight against sexual offences and assist in protecting vulnerable people, especially women and children.