South African Press Association (Johannesburg) - August 16, 2003

"Our reality is that we face the challenge of HIV and Aids in the midst of several other socio-economic problems that affect our region," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Women in Partnership Against Aids conference in Johannesburg.

To understand the epidemic and respond to it more forcefully, people should understand the conditions under which HIV and other health challenges present themselves in the Southern African Development Community region, she told delegates from SADC countries.

"This summit needs to note that poverty is at the root of much of the untenable burden of disease worldwide. Poverty increases vulnerability to ill-health.

Economic underdevelopment, unemployment and low incomes, environmental degradation, shortfalls in agricultural production, inequitable land reform, lack of education, poor infrastructure and the oppression of women are but some of the drivers of poverty."

These factors highlighted the need for action over a broad spectrum, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

"Droughts, food shortages, high rates of maternal and child malnutrition, Vitamin A deficiency, nutrition anaemia and iodine deficiency are some of the factors that make our populations more vulnerable to many diseases."

The emergence of HIV/Aids had worsened an already precarious situation regarding food and nutrition in the region -- affecting the economically active who should be producing crops, she said.

"We are also in the grip of one of many famines that have afflicted our region over the past decades."

The famine came at a time when people were already undernourished and poor, and their immune systems were compromised.

"What we are therefore seeing in our countries is a complex humanitarian challenge that requires a multi-pronged response," the minister said.

"Our region is responding to these challenges with responses that seek to break the vicious cycle of poverty affecting our region."

Commitments made by governments included the Maseru Declaration adopted last month. Its objectives included taking steps towards poverty alleviation and ultimately its eradication, as well as combating HIV/Aids and other deadly and communicable diseases.

"We appreciate that we have limited resources. But as women and a region, we are committed to ensuring that we find sustainable solutions to the challenges facing us.

"These solutions should be affordable and based on locally available products and technologies. Their ultimate end result should be the empowerment of our communities, enabling them to make a contribution to their own development."

Women were socially, culturally and economically more vulnerable to HIV/Aids, but should be frontline soldiers in a united effort against the epidemic, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

"Tragically, because women are more vulnerable and marginalised and certain cultural stereotypes perpetuate the perception of women as inferior, our ability to negotiate safer sex and counter sexual violence remains difficult.

"It is part of our responsibility to change these perceptions, to tell women that they do have a right to be respected. Part of our message should be to empower women to take charge of their own sexuality," she said.
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