Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 August 2009-Southern African HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) will next week host a discussion forum (DF) for government, civil society, the media and traditional leaders under the theme “Addressing Multiple Concurrent Partnerships.”

The discussion forum will take place at the Rainbow Towers on the 19th of August from 8:30am to 1.pm.

According to international organisations, such as UNAIDS, and regional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and recent research, multiple concurrent partnerships (MCPs) are a key contributor to the spread of HIV in southern Africa, Zimbabwe included. The practice is wide-spread throughout the region and has been cited as one of the reasons why HIV prevalence is higher in southern Africa than elsewhere.

In Zimbabwe the MCP phenomenon is especially common and has manifested in the form of small houses, a term that describes the mistress of a married man. Often, these women live in a house or flat rented or purchased for them by the married man, with whom they have, children. However he will also have a “big house” – the official wife and family - somewhere else.
Society no longer frowns upon these unions and it has almost become the norm for married men to have mistresses. Lately married women are also taking lovers to get back at their husbands for neglecting them.

The objectives of the Discussion Forum are therefore to; raise awareness on multiple concurrent partnerships as a key driver of the HIV epidemic; explore the practicality of the One Love model as a prevention strategy; and provide a networking platform for participants to the discussion forum.

MCPs are especially risky, because by their very nature, there are challenges to the continuing use of condoms in these relationships.

When people engage in unprotected sex with two or more partners at the same time, the risk of becoming infected with HIV increases.  

Zimbabwe recently launched the One Love campaign, a regional campaign, based on research, which comes up with a simple and practical suggestion: if people remain faithful to one sexual partner, the rate of new HIV infections will decline dramatically.  

Participants to the DF will have the opportunity to hear from Action, the organisation that is spearheading the One Love Regional Campaign in Zimbabwe, what the nine country research study revealed and how practical the model is, taking into account some regional traditional practices, such as polygamy.

Other key speakers at the Discussion Forum will include the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, youth organisations, men’s organisations, among others.

It is hoped that at the end of the Discussion Forum participants will be able to appreciate the dangers that MCPS pose and spread this information further to their networks.