Influencing the Political Arena in Rwanda

1. Influencing the Political Arena in Rwanda Viviane FurahaKalumire, FRSL+/RW Women’s meaningful participation in shaping HIV decision-making, policies, and programs

2. Presentation Outline • Background on Women, Girls, HIV in Rwanda • Promising Practices: 3 Case Studies • Key Strategies for Meaningful Participation • Achievements • Lessons Learned and Recommendations

3. Women, Girls and HIV in Rwanda • HIV prevalence in Rwanda is 3.0% in the general population aged 15-49 (DHS 2010). • Women are disproportionately impacted, comprising 59% of infected adults. • HIV prevalence is 3.7% among women 15-49, compared to 2.3% among men. • Prevalence is higher among women than men in nearly every age group.

4. Promoting Women’s Participation and Gender Equity in Rwanda • Rwanda has been at the forefront of promoting women’s empowerment and participation. • The country has the highest proportion of female parliamentarians in the world (56%). • The country’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy emphasizes women’s representation and participation in political processes.

5. Women’s participation in the HIV response • Progress has been made to promote gender equality and women's participation in decision-making. • However, women living with HIV (WLHIV) remain underrepresented in the national HIV response. • Experience shows that HIV policies and programs often fail when women are excluded from shaping their content and direction.

6. Promising Practices: 3 Case Studies for Promoting Meaningful Involvement of WLHIV (MIWA) • National Accelerated Plan for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (2010-2014); • EC-UN Women “Supporting Gender Equality in the Context of HIV/AIDS” program; and • National Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (2011-2015).

7. National Accelerated Plan (NAP) for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (2010-2014) • In 2010, Rwanda’s First Lady launched the four-year Accelerated Plan to promote actions for addressing gender equity and women’s empowerment in the HIV response. • “Concentrated effort is needed to ensure that women and girls, especially those living with HIV, are empowered and equipped to transform the national agenda to protect and promote the needs and rights of women and girls in the context of HIV.”

8. Women’s Participation in the NAP • WLHIV and women’s advocates are key partners in developing and implementing the plan, identifying priorities and strategies to promote equity and empowerment. • The plan advocates to: “Empower women, especially those infected and affected by HIV, to become leaders and active participants in the national HIV response, shaping policies, programs, and budgets.”

9. EC-UN Women “Supporting Gender Equality In The Context Of HIV/AIDS” Program • The program is a US $3.1 million, cost-sharing programme between the European Commission and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). • It is being implemented in five countries – Cambodia, Jamaica, Kenya, Papua New Guinea and Rwanda (Jan 2009-Dec 2012). • The overall objective of the programme is to ensure that gender equality and human rights are integrated into key policies, programmes, and actions to address HIV and AIDS at the national level.

10. Promoting Women’s Empowerment The EC-UN Women programme aims to: • Promote the leadership and participation of HIV-positive women’s organizations and women affected by HIV/AIDS in influencing and shaping the policies, programmes, and resource allocations that address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 5 selected countries. • Enhance the national commitment to and action for addressing gender equality in the national AIDS response in 5 selected countries.

11. Increasing Women’s Participation • In Rwanda, the EC-UNWOMEN program work with women living with HIV’s organizations to strengthen institutional capacity for advocacy and meaningful participation in HIV decision making, policies and programs.

12. National Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Mother-to-child Transmission of HIV (2011-2015) • In 2011, Rwanda developed a new national e-MTCT strategy to meet its bold target of reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than 2% by 2015. • Successfully eliminating new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive requires that women living with HIV are actively engaged in and contribute to the development of national e-MTCT strategies and targets.

13. National Consultation with WLHIV • A one-day consultative workshop with WLHIV, women’s advocates and organizations was conducted to identify women’s priorities, needs and lessons learnt. • Recommendations for women’s involvement in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the plan were incorporated into the final strategy.

14. Promising Practices & Achievements • NAP (2010) and eMTCT Strategy (2012): • Participatory processes involving WLHIV (workshops, focus groups, and in-depth interviews) were used to identify key priorities and activities, and to develop HIV strategies that address women’s needs and rights and promote gender equity. • EC-UN: • The EC-UN Women project fostered HIV-positive women's leadership through training, technical assistance, advocacy planning sessions, and the development of formal mechanisms within national AIDS coordinating bodies that include women.

15. Lessons Learned • WLHIV's active participation in national HIV policies and strategies development increases their visibility and ensures that their needs and rights are prioritized (e.g. requirement of future participation of women and girls in national HIV decision-making). • Such practices enable WLHIV to be directly involved in implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of strategies they helped to develop (e.g. by aligning their own programs and budgets to the National Accelerated Plan).

16. Lessons Learned These case studies highlight MIWA's positive impact and the need for concentrated commitment to actively involve WLHIV in decision-making.

17. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: • Deliberate programming is needed to ensure that women and girls are empowered and equipped to transform national agendas to protect and promote their needs and rights in the HIV context in all countries. • Concrete strategies and opportunities for engaging women and girls in decision-making are necessary to ensure meaningful participation of WLHIV.