The month beginning on September 14th and ending on October 17th 2006 is the Global Month of Action, a period that is set aside to challenge the structures of poverty, injustice and inequality across the world. The Global Month of Action which will be running under the theme of “Stand Up Against Poverty”, will see millions of people in different countries uniting under the banner of the white band, as they stand up against poverty and renew the call for trade justice, debt cancellation, as well as more and better more appropriate aid. The action this year runs concurrently with the IMF and World Bank meetings in Singapore. It ends on October 17th, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, in a Global White Band Day.

The Month of Action has been called by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, the campaigning alliance that was founded at the beginning of 2005 and has since grown into the world’s largest ever anti-poverty movement. The Global Month of Action provides an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between poverty and HIV. Poverty has contributed to the speed and scale of the epidemic and in turn AIDS increases and deepens poverty.

Key issues:

1. Poverty is one of a number of factors that can make people vulnerable to HIV infection. Poor people may be more vulnerable because:

• Information Education and Communication materials on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support are less likely to reach the poor and if they do, such messages are often irrelevant and inapplicable given the reality of their lives. They are struggling just to keep themselves fed and have little time to worry about less immediate threats like AIDS.
• Poverty and the lack of access to sustainable livelihoods are factors in labour mobility which itself contributes to the conditions in which HIV transmission occurs.
• Many of the poorest are women, who often head the poorest of households in southern Africa. Inevitably such women are forced to engage in transactional sex as a survival strategy for themselves and their dependents.
• The poor are more likely to be victims of crime, including sexual crime. Thus poor women are at greater risk of HIV infection through rape.

2. The HIV epidemic makes sustained human development more and more unattainable and actually adds to poverty, as well as destroying the human resource capacities essential for an effective response.

• The chronic illnesses that are a consequence of the pandemic deplete household assets, reduce labour, and lead to reduced crop production.
• Poor African countries are less able to provide adequate HIV education, prevention and testing services and to care for those who are already infected, than are richer parts of the world.
• The rapid increase in the number of orphans has placed considerable strain on existing social support systems.

The media has the opportunity to set the public agenda on the links between poverty and HIV during the Global Month of Action. They should take this opportunity to represent the public interest by focusing on the policies governments can implement on trade, debt, aid and HIV in order to make poverty history.

3. HIV is rooted in African poverty and unless and until poverty is reduced there will be little progress either with reducing transmission of the virus or in enhancing capacity to cope with its socio-economic consequences.

Sources:
1.Poverty and HIV/AIDS in southern Africa: http://www.undp.org/hiv/publications/issues/english/issue27e.html
2.http://www.avert.org/aids-africa-questions-2.htm
3.AIDS and poverty: The Links: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/heard/publications/AidsAnalysisAfrica/AAA%2012_2_Aug-Sept_2001.pdf.

For more information, contact:
Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN)
1250 Pretorius Street, Office W2, ProEquity Court, Hatfield 0083, South Africa
Telephone: +27 (0)12 342 9499
Fax: +27 (0)12 342 5636
E-mail: info@sarpn.org

Southern African Humanitarian Information Management Network for a Coordinated Disaster response (SAHIMS)
Secretariat
MERAFE House, 11 Naivasha Rd, Sunninghill 2157, Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 517 1568
Fax: +27 11 517 1690
Email: secretariat@sahims.net