Property Rights and HIV/AIDS: Empowering Women to Save Lives Hema Swaminathan International Center for Research on Women June 7, 2005

Key Points  Women are now the global face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with enormous and direct implications for household food security and welfare  To ensure household food security and welfare, we must address women’s rights to own and control property  Ensuring women’s property rights is critical to reduce transmission of HIV and help households cope with the consequences of the epidemic

An Increasingly Feminized Epidemic  Women are more vulnerable to HIV than men – due to their biology, their economic status, and prevailing gender inequalities  Since 2002, the number of women living with HIV has increased in every region  Today, nearly 50 percent of all adults living with HIV globally are women  In sub-Saharan Africa, that percentage is close to 60 percent, and 76 percent of young people (15-24 years) living with HIV are female

Africa's HIV Gender Imbalance

Women, Agriculture, and Food Security  Women contribute to all 3 pillars of food security: production, access, nutrition security  Produce 60–80 percent of the food  In sub-Saharan Africa women produce about 80 percent of household food, in Asia women do 50–90 percent of the work in rice fields  Women’s incomes are more strongly associated with improvements in children’s welfare/ nutrition  Women are the gatekeepers of household nutrition security

Importance of Property Rights  Economic assets, instead of just income, provide:  Protection against economic shocks  Site of economic production  Economic risk-taking  Form of wealth with which to gain access to credit  Access to productive inputs and extension services  Greater bargaining power and decision making within the household

Importance of Women’s Property Rights in Context of HIV/AIDS  Reduces vulnerability to HIV risk factors  Provides economic resources to HIV-affected households  Ensures future provision of care and adequate resources for children

Denial of Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights has Consequences  Increased numbers of female-headed households who suffer substantial permanent loss of assets and “property grabbing”  Destitution may also increase women’s vulnerability to sexual harassment, exploitation, and transactional sex  Inter-generational poverty rises as household assets are fragmented and orphans are impoverished

Current Status of Women’s Property Rights  Lack of sex-disaggregated data makes it difficult to be definitive  Women control land and productive assets less frequently than men do  In Brazil (2000), women owned 11 percent of land.  In Pakistan (2001), women owned less than 3 percent of the plots.  In Cameroon (1995), women held fewer than 10 percent of land certificates.  More women have access rights as compared to ownership rights

The Response  Additional legislative reform  Documentation and evaluation  Using evidence for advocacy and policy change  Giving greater support and visibility to creative and innovative interventions by community-based organizations

Key Points  Women are now the global face of the HIV/AIDS  We must address women’s rights to own and control property

BECAUSE EMPOWERED WOMEN ARE KEY TO HALTING THE EPIDEMIC