[women-rights] Annan spotlights women in Africa's battle against AIDS and famine

ANNAN SPOTLIGHTS WOMEN IN AFRICA'S BATTLE AGAINST AIDS AND FAMINE
New York, Dec 30 2002 11:00AM

Shining the spotlight on the plight of women during African crises, United 
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged that more attention be 
devoted towards saving these traditional caretakers as the continent 
currently battles the twin threat of famine and AIDS.

This deadly combination "is threatening the backbone of Africa ­ the women 
who keep African societies going and whose work makes up the economic 
foundation of rural communities," the Secretary-General writes in an 
opinion piece that was published yesterday in The New York Times and the 
International Herald Tribune.

In famines before the AIDS crisis, women proved more resilient than men, 
the Secretary-General notes, adding that their survival rate was higher, 
and their coping skills were stronger. "Women were the ones that found 
alternative foods that could sustain their children in times of drought," 
he says. "As droughts happened once a decade or so, women who had 
experienced previous droughts were able to pass on survival techniques to 
younger women. Women are the ones that nurture social networks that can 
help spread the burden in times of famine."

But as AIDS is eroding the health of Africa's women, it is eroding the 
skills, experience and networks that kept their families and communities 
going, Mr. Annan says. "Even before falling ill, a woman will often have to 
care for a sick husband, thereby reducing the time she can devote to 
planting, harvesting and marketing crops," he says. "When she dies, the 
household will risk collapsing completely, leaving children to fend for 
themselves."

Because this crisis is different from past famines, the Secretary-General 
urges looking beyond relief measures of the past, such as merely shipping 
in food, to combining food assistance and new approaches to farming with 
treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. He points to successful examples 
in countries throughout the African continent as proof that "there is 
reason to hope."

"We can and must build on those successes and replicate them elsewhere," 
Mr. Annan says. "For that, we need leadership, partnership and imagination 
from the international community and African governments. If we want to 
save Africa from two catastrophes, we would do well to focus on saving 
Africa's women."

UN News Centre