The National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, has stated that more effort needs to be put in place to reduce the gender inequality and violence that women and girls at risk of HIV face in the country.

National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA.

The agency made this known in a statement it released ahead of International Women’s Day.

The statement, which was signed by the NACA Head of Media and Protocols, says “This year’s International Women’s Day comes on the heels of an unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality, and justice”.

“Poverty, sexual harassment, violence, and discrimination against women have captured headlines and public discourse, propelled by a rising determination for change”.

The theme for this year’s IWD will provide an opportunity to transform this momentum into action, to empower women in all settings, rural and urban, and celebrate the activists who are working relentlessly to claim gender equality for women to enable them to realize their full potential. This strategy is equally important in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of leaving no one behind.

“Evidence exists that most gender-related interventions have focused on breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty, particularly for disadvantaged women and girl children, but have been weaker in promoting women’s economic empowerment through employment or sustainable livelihoods.

“Unfortunately, in most communities, resources are limited to support economic strengthening and livelihood interventions for indigent Persons Living with HIV, particularly women, whose main role is still to be a wife, mother, and homemaker while the man is the main decision-maker and income-earner”.

Story: Hilda Katu

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