Zimbabwe: Involve Men in Fight for Gender Equality


The growing calls to engage men and boys to advance gender equality have been met with resistance and labels of it being a donor- driven agenda from many feminists and women's rights activists.
Gender dynamics and the gender order continue to change in Zimbabwe and beyond. While tremendous variations do exists, the objective quality of life and political conditions for women and girls have improved markedly around the world in the past 25 years. Women are now 49 percent of the global workforce and represent half of those enrolled in universities.
Women's income has increased substantially compared to men, although it is still on average 22 percent less than men's. Nearly 140 countries have explicit guarantees of gender equality in their constitutions, however slow they may be to act on those (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2010).
Equally important is what is happening in the social imagination; there is now a generation of boys and girls in Zimbabwe and around the globe who have gone to school together, who may (in most settings but not clearly all) see each other as equals and who have increasingly seen their mothers carry out activities -- in particular, working outside in the home and contributing to household income -- that used to be considered the purview of men.
We cannot declare that the gender equality agenda is done. The gaps within the country and between the rich and the poor continue to rise.
Maternal mortality rate still remains high in Zimbabwe and the chances of women dying in childbirth are still very high. We still have very high rates of violence against women.
The continuing high rates of violence against women by male partners are a shame to men and boys. From global surveys with women, inspired by the World Health Organisation multi-country study on violence against women, and others that have followed the same methodology; we know that about a third of the world's women will suffer physical violence from a male partner at least once in their lives with rates from 15 percent to 71 percent.
It is a shame of a different order that men have not assumed a greater role in care work, that the care of children and in the home is still considered in our society, in our politics and in our workplaces to be the work of women and girls, whether paid or unpaid. What do we make of men and masculinities in all this? If we have a national agenda that seek to revolutionise the lives to women and girls, the lives of men and boys have to change as well. These changing realities have to then frame any engagements of men and boys in the gender agenda and this then should also challenge programmes and policies driving the gender equality agenda.
The engagement of men on the gender agenda has been at most project based and short term. It is politically and symbolically important and it is having an impact on the relatively small number of women, men and children it affects, but it is limited in reach and often far shy of what is needed to achieve large scale social change.
A casual assessment of the projects and programmes in Zimbabwe that have engaged men and boys to advance gender equality will easily show this trend.
The World Health Organisation has noted that interventions that question social norms related to masculinities were, in general, more effective than health interventions that did not include a discussion or component to question these norms.
Interventions with men to achieve attitudes and practices can be described as strange interventions trying to achieve measurable impact in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of resources. There is an overall belief that centuries of patriarchy can be overcome with something equivalent to a vaccine or a five minute counselling session.
The need to work with men and boys to advance gender equality needs well-designed, participatory, and emancipatory programme interventions that can make a difference and lead to change in the lives of individual men and women.
Little has been done in the areas of education and health or the overcrowded prisons filled with low-income men with limited educational attainment, or income support systems and social justice polices.
We have been slow to understand and timid in affirming that there is only one pathway to sustainable, structural gender equality; supporting the full rights of women and men and supporting the roles of both men and women as equal caregivers and providers.
One of the biggest points of discussion in the gender equality agenda is what to do about disadvantaged men or low-income men. We have long taken seriously women's economic disadvantages. We have understood that women's lower income relative to men is in itself a tremendous inequality but is also the driver of many other social inequalities that women live every day.
The simplest and most direct way to think about disadvantaged men is this: if a poor women makes U$1,00 a day (the very crude global indicator of poverty), this poor women's husband on average makes US$1,22 a day. He may have other kinds of power and privilege compared to his wife. His male peers may laugh it off and support him if he spends most of his weekly pay at the bar, takes an outside sexual partner and comes home and uses violence against his wife.
But he is not a rich man; he is not even middle class. And when he compares himself to other men around him, which is what patriarchy makes him do; he is not and does not feel like an empowered human being. And very often he questions whether he is, as commonly socially defined, even a man.
Livelihood policies that understand how economics affect men, women and families and how work and livelihoods are important to men beyond the material benefits of income.
We hear from men a syllogism; to be socially recognised as a man, you have to work. No work means no manhood. Men's employment status plays a role in determining when they can form families, whether they are able to contribute financially to their families and in some cases, whether they live with their children.
If men derive their identities and chief social function from their roles as providers, what happens when men are without work, or do not have sufficient income to meet the social expectations placed on them as providers?
Specifically what happens under such conditions in terms of men's participation in family life, involvement with children and family formation? This is not to suggest here that men's poverty is somehow worse that women's. This is to affirm the fact that poverty plays out in gendered ways in the lives of women and men and interventions aimed at poverty alleviation should also know what to do with poor men if gendered social justice is to be achieved.
Like women's poverty, and men's poverty, both issues deserve attention. Both are gender issues and both have immediate implications in the lives of women and men in different and unequal way. They must be compared yes, and they should both be acknowledged as gendered realities.
Lastly, misguided beliefs about men should be changed. How do we get to more justice-based, nuanced gender equality policies that acknowledge men in thoughtful ways?
How do we speed up and complete the full gender equality agenda while also including and understanding men?
Too often, averages and aggregates lead us to blunt-headed policies, to conclusions that all men are violent or prone to violence or that men do not carry out the care work so why should we even try.
We cannot ignore aggregate inequalities but we do have more insights on how to promote change when we focus on and listen to the voices of men who have found non-violent, gender equitable, caring versions of manhood.
We must understand that patriarchy is a power structure that works in multiple directions at the same time. A few men have power over the lives of other men and over women. These powerful men decide when a factory closes or moves to another region or decide if they will pay adequate benefits or a decent wage or not.
The patriarchal dividend is not evenly divided, just as dividends in our capitalist system are not evenly divided. We cannot push men further along the path toward gender equality and reduce their use of violence against women unless we acknowledge this reality. Whether in Mkokoba, Sizinda, Mangondoza or in middle class households across the country, we must acknowledge that some men who have made women's lives hell have themselves had hellish lives.
If we want men to become non-violent, to become more caring, more empathetic, to treat women with the respect they deserve, we must show some empathy towards them. This is not to forgive any individual man's violence. This is not to forgive individual men for the multiple injustices committed in women's and girls' lives. And in saying that we must treat men with empathy, we do not diminish in any way the power and urgency of the women's rights movement.
In fact, we strengthen the women's rights agenda when we help men develop the connection that makes us all human. Only then will we complete the revolution we have started in the lives of women and girls.
In the midst of the urgency and the confusion surrounding engaging men and boys, gender transformative initiatives with men are often designed
to enable men to explore rigid societal messages about manhood and examine the costs that these norms have on men and women and their communities.
These efforts often engage men in the social action in order to challenge the existing gender norms that perpetuate violence and poor health in communities in which they live. Men's social action goals should be focused on building alliances with women to promote justice and equality.
The Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network is an information-based organisation advocating for gender equality and equity.
source: All Africa

Flood caused by habagat on 7 August 2012



A boy zipping through a lifeline: to reach safer, higher ground, a young boy tests an improvised zip line anchored in ahouse isolated by floodwaters in Cainta, Rizal province, on Friday. Though the relentless pounding of rains has stopped, many areas are still submerged in floodwaters in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon.

Africans face an uncertain race as they try to escape poverty


Good news from Africa: after two decades of bloody anarchy, Somalia is finally on the mend. There is something resembling a government coming into being in the capital Mogadishu, with much help from African Union troops — although the country’s most popular comedian, Abdi Jeylani Marshale, famous for his parodies of Islamic militants, was assassinated in broad daylight a week ago
Bad news from Africa: the situation in Mali is awful. The military coup in March that opened the way for Tuareg tribalists and Islamist extremists to seize the northern half of the country isn’t really over. The ignorant and brutal young officers who made the coup are blocking the arrival of 3,000 African Union troops, Mali’s only hope of ever regaining control in the north, because it would undermine their own power.
News about Africa that you don’t know whether to cheer or deplore: the major foreign aid donors have finally got fed up with Rwanda’s endless military meddling in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States has announced a cut in military aid, and Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are delaying payment of civilian aid until Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, stops backing a rebel Tutsi militia in his country’s Congolese neighbour.
Too many names, too many places, too much news. Even Africans cannot keep up with the news about their own continent. Is Africa going forward, sideways, or nowhere at all? Indeed, is Africa any more than a geographical term?
The surfeit of news is inevitable in a continent that contains more than 50 countries. The sense of chronic crisis and chaos is due to the fact that in such a news-rich environment, the bad news will always jostle the good news aside. And yes, there really is an Africa about which you can usefully make large generalizations.
First, the entire continent is finally growing economically. Many African economies stagnated or even went backward in the first three or four decades after decolonization, but now there is real growth. Local disaster areas remain, of course, but over the past decade, the gross domestic product of those 50-plus countries has grown at an average rate of five per cent.
Manufacturing production in Africa has doubled in the past 10 years. Seven of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies are in Africa. The growth is starting from a desperately low base, in many cases, but the magic of compound interest means that a five-per-cent growth rate will double the size of the economy every 14 years.
So there really is hope that most Africans can escape from poverty in the next generation — but on one condition. The birth rate is declining in most countries, but it must fall faster. The 2008 UN projections saw Africa doubling its population to two billion by mid-century, even assuming that the current gradual decline in African birth rates continues. That means an average population growth over this entire period of almost two per cent a year.
If the economy is growing at five per cent and the population is growing at two per cent annually, that only leaves room for a three-per-cent growth in average income. That means a doubling time of about 23 years for African average incomes, so let’s assume that they triple by 2050. That’s not enough.
African average incomes now are so low that tripling them would still not create the degree of prosperity and security that people in other continents are coming to expect. Worse, it would not give African governments the resources to cope with the huge damage that climate change will do to the continent.
There is enough potential cropland in Africa to feed twice the current population in the present climate, but it’s far from clear that this will remain true in a two-degree-warmer world. If African governments invest enough in agriculture now, they can probably keep everybody fed; if not, the long-term future of the continent probably includes widespread political violence and gradual economic collapse.
It’s a race. Grow average incomes fast enough and you probably survive the coming storm. Otherwise, you lose all you have gained, and more besides. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Why is Africa Poor?

Why is Africa poor?

Map of Africa
By the year 2000, half the world's poor were in Africa.
It is the only continent to have become poorer in the past 25 years.
This is because of several reasons:
  • Borrowing money
  • Growing cash crops
  • Dictatorship
  • Fighting
  • Population growth
  • Land ownership
  • Climate change
  • Dirty water


10 Extreme Examples of Gender Inequality


The human rights of women throughout the Middle East and North Africa are systematically denied by each of the countries in the region, despite the diversity of their political systems. Many governments routinely suppress civil society by restricting freedom of the press, expression, and assembly. These restrictions adversely affect both men and women; however, women are subject to a host of additional gender-specific human rights violations. For example, family, penal, and citizenship laws throughout the region relegate women to a subordinate status compared to their male counterparts. This legal discrimination undermines women’s full personhood and equal participation in society and puts women at an increased risk for violence.
Family matters in countries as diverse as Iran, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia are governed by religion-based personal status codes. Many of these laws treat women essentially as legal minors under the eternal guardianship of their male family members. Family decision-making is thought to be the exclusive domain of men, who enjoy by default the legal status of “head of household.” These notions are supported by family courts in the region that often reinforce the primacy of male decision-making power.
Here are ten of the most extreme examples of gender inequality you can find currently practiced, often state-sanctioned, in the world today.
10
Forbidden from driving
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In Saudi Arabia, women aren’t allowed to drive, or even ride bikes, and men aren’t allowed to drive women they’re not closely related to. The kingdom is currently dealing with the dilemma of how to get 367,000 girls to school on buses that can only be driven by men. The logical question at this point is this: If no men are allowed to come in contact with schoolgirls, and women aren’t allowed to drive, who will be driving the school buses? The Ministry of Education is currently recruiting “Al-Ameen” or trustworthy men for this initiative. It may be hard for some to take this term seriously considering the way Saudi Arabia’s religious police infamously broke the trust of 15 girls’ parents in 2002 when a girls’ school was on fire. The police forbade them from leaving the building, and in some cases beat them to keep them from leaving, because the girls’ heads weren’t properly veiled. The girls all died in the fire. One has to wonder how the Ministry of Education plans to handle school-bus breakdowns near similarly inclined men.
9
Clothing requirements
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In 2001 a militant group called Lashkar-e-Jabar demanded that Muslim women in Kashmir wear burqas, head to toe garments that cover their clothes, or risk being attacked. Men threw acid in the faces of two women for not covering up in public. The group also demanded that Hindu and Sikh women dress so as to identify themselves: they said that Hindu women should wear a bindi (the traditional colored dot) on their foreheads, and Sikh women should cover their heads with saffron-colored cloth.
8
Right to divorce
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In many countries, while husbands can divorce their spouses easily (often instantaneously through oral repudiation), wives’ access to divorce is often extremely limited, and they frequently confront near insurmountable legal and financial obstacles. In Lebanon, battered women cannot file for divorce on the basis of abuse without the testimony of an eyewitness. A medical certificate from a doctor documenting physical abuse is simply not good enough. Although women in Egypt can now legally initiate a divorce without cause, they must agree not only to renounce all rights to the couple’s finances, but must also repay their dowries. Essentially, they have to buy their freedom. In Israel, a man must grant his wife a get, a Jewish divorce writ that can only be given by a man to his wife – never the other way around.
7
Access to education
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In many areas of Afghanistan, girls are often taken out of school when they hit puberty. Cultural factors related to the ‘correctness’ of sending girls to school, reluctance to send girls and boys to the same school after third grade, as well as the perceived and real security threats related to girls walking to school and attending classes all contribute to slowing down the enrollment of girls in schools. Likewise, the enormous lack of female teachers, who are fundamental in a country where girls cannot be taught by a man after a certain age, is having a negative impact on girls’ education. While progress has been made since the fall of the Taliban, women are still struggling to see their rights fulfilled. Literacy rates among young Afghan women are disturbingly low: only 18 per cent of women between 15 and 24 can read. While the total number of children enrolled in primary schools is increasing tremendously, the percentage of female students is not.
6
Right to travel
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Husbands in Egypt and Bahrain can file an official complaint at the airport to forbid their wives from leaving the country for any reason. In Syria, a husband can prevent his wife from leaving the country. In Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Morocco, Oman and Yemen, married women must have their husband’s written permission to travel abroad, and they may be prevented from doing so for any reason. In Saudi Arabia, women must obtain written permission from their closest male relative to leave the country or travel on public transportation between different parts of the kingdom.



5
Victims of violence
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Women’s unequal legal rights increase their vulnerability to violence. In many countries in the region, no specific laws or provisions exist to penalize domestic violence, even though domestic violence is a widespread problem. Domestic violence is generally considered to be a private matter outside the state’s jurisdiction. Battered women are told to go home if they attempt to file a complaint with the police. Few shelters exist to protect women who fear for their lives. Spousal rape has not been criminalized; husbands have an absolute right to their wives’ bodies at all times. Penal codes in several countries in the region also contain provisions that authorize the police and judges to drop charges against a rapist if he agrees to marry his victim.
4
Custody rights
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In Bahrain, where family law is not codified, judges have complete power to deny women custody of their children for the most arbitrary reasons. Bahraini women who have been courageous enough to expose and challenge these violations in 2003 were sued for slander by eleven family court judges.
3
Citizenship
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Most countries in the region-with the exception of Iran, Tunisia, Israel, and to a limited extent Egypt-have permitted only fathers to pass citizenship on to their children. Women married to non-nationals are denied this fundamental right.
2
Sexual subjugation
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Many countries criminalize adult, consensual sex outside of marriage. In Morocco, women are much more likely to be charged with having violated penal code prohibitions on sexual relations outside of marriage than men. Unmarried pregnant women are particularly at risk of prosecution. The Moroccan penal code also considers the rape of a virgin as an aggravating circumstance of assault. The message is clear: the degree of punishment of the perpetrator is determined by the sexual experience of the victim.
1
Female infanticide
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China’s one child policy has heightened the disdain for female infants; abortion, neglect, abandonment, and infanticide have been known to occur to female infants. The result of such family planning has been the disparate ratio of 114 males for every 100 females among babies from birth through children four years of age. Normally, 105 males are naturally born for every 100 females.
Similarly, the number of girls born and surviving in India is significantly less compared with the number of boys, due to the disproportionate numbers of female fetuses being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die. The normal ratio of births should be 950 girls for every 1000 boys, however in some regions the number is as low as 300.
Contributor: rushfan

Word: As women's status rises, so do literary 'shes' and 'hers'


Henrik Sorensen  /  Getty Images stock
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, and her colleagues analyzed more than a million books on Google's Ngram Viewer for the use of gendered pronouns published between 1900 and 2008.
By News editor
updated 8/10/2012 6:55:58 PM ET
The prevalence of female pronouns — she, her, hers, herself — in American books could be used to track the changing status of women in the 20th century, according to a new study, which found the he/she ratio after the late 1960s mirrored advances in gender equality.
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, and her colleagues analyzed more than a million books on Google's Ngram Viewer for the use of gendered pronounspublished between 1900 and 2008.
For every "she" found in this sample between 1900 and 1945, there were about 3.5 "hes." The gap then grew during the post-World War II era, increasing to a male-to-female ratio of about 4.5 to 1. But the use of female pronouns in books began rising in the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s, the male-to-female ratio of pronouns in American books dropped to 3 to 1. And by the 2000s, it was 2 to 1. The researchers believe these changes occurred in step with rapid advances in gender equality — evident in other factors such as more education and more participation in the labor force — starting in the late 1960s.
The researchers pointed to a few possible reasons for this correlation. Authors might have used the universal "he" as a default pronoun during periods when women's status was lower, the researchers wrote in their paper. Meanwhile, authors in eras with increased gender equality might have switched between "he" and "she" or used constructions like "he/she" and "he or she." They also might have included more female topics or characters in their books."These trends in language quantify one of the largest, and most rapid, cultural changes ever observed: The incredible increase in women's status since the late 1960s in the U.S.," Twenge said in a statement from Springer, which published the research in its journal Sex Roles. "Gender equality is the clear upside of the cultural movement toward individualism in the U.S., and books reflect this movement toward equality. That's exciting because it shows how we can document social change."
This isn't the first study to look at the link between language and equality. Past research found that languages across the globe in which nouns are given male or female status are linked to gender inequality. Surprisingly, that study, detailed in a 2012 issue of the journal Sex Roles, found that languages with no gender ("he" and "she" are represented by the same word) had the most gender inequality, perhaps because people automatically categorize gender-neutral references as male.
source: MSNBC

What's it like to be a woman or girl today? (Video)

UNICEF travelled around the world asking women and girls a question: "What's it like to be a woman or girl today?" These are their answers. This video was prepared by UNICEF for the 54th session of the CSW focusing on Beijing+15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfMmvr2yw2I&feature=player_embedded

Examples of Projects for Gender Equality


Gender equality is a crosscutting theme and an integral part of all CIDA policies, programs and projects. Addressing gender equality as a crosscutting goal requires that women's views, interests and needs shape the development agenda as much as men's, and that the development agenda supports progress toward more equal relations between women and men.

CIDA focuses on producing results on gender equality in three areas:
  • increasing the participation of women in decision-making
  • promoting the human rights of women and girls
  • reducing inequalities in access to and control over the resources and benefits of development
The following list is a sample of projects that contribute to gender equality. For more projects, consult CIDA's Project Browser. Use the advanced search and type "gender equality" into the keyword box.

Bolivia

Haiti

Indonesia

Mali

Pakistan

Philippines

Vietnam

Regional


source: CIDA

Equality between Women and Men


Equality between women and men or gender equality includes:
  • promoting the equal participation of women and men in making decisions
  • supporting women and girls so that they can fully exercise their rights
  • reducing the gap between women's and men's access to and control of resources and the benefits of development
Gender equality is still out of reach for most women worldwide.
Women continue to have fewer rights, lower education and health status, less income, and less access to resources and decision-making than men. Nevertheless, women's critical roles in food production, income generation, management of natural resources, community organization and domestic responsibilities are essential for sustainable development.
A man and a woman weaving carpets © ACDI-CIDA/Roger LeMoyne
A man and a woman weaving carpets. Afghanistan.

If equitable and sustainable progress is to be achieved, women's status must be improved, their rights must be respected, and their contributions must be recognized.
The international community has made important commitments to women's rights and equality between women and men, including:
Canada has played an important role in advocating for and implementing these commitments, and launched an Action Plan for the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security in October 2010.
CIDA has been a world leader in integrating gender equality analysis into its programs. Equality between women and men continues to be a crosscutting theme throughout Canada's programs. Gender equality results are systematically and explicitly integrated across all CIDA programs.

source: 

HIV/AIDS facts and figures


HIV (or Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the virus that causes AIDS (or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). The virus is passed from one person to another through blood-to-blood and sexual contact. HIV damages the immune system, which eventually becomes so weak that diseases and infections begin to attack the body. As these conditions worsen, a person is diagnosed with AIDS.
HIV/AIDS can be treated, but not cured. Not yet. Here are some statistics:
  • Around 33 million people in the world live with HIV/AIDS, and the vast majority are unaware of their HIV status.
  • About 12 million young people between 15 to 24 live with HIV/AIDS.
  • 7,400 more people are infected with HIV every day! Almost half of them are under 25.
  • Young women are about three times more vulnerable to HIV infection that their male peers.
  • 2 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2008.
  • 2.7 million people became infected with HIV in 2008.
  • More than 97% of infected people live in low- and middle-income countries.
  • Since HIV was first documented in 1981, more than 25 million people (men, women and children) have died of AIDS-related illnesses.
People infected with HIV/AIDS live in nearly every country in the world. In some countries, like Botswana and Swaziland, almost 40% of the population has HIV/AIDS.
The virus continues to spread. Epidemics have erupted in China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, several Central Asian countries and the Baltic States.
HIV/AIDS is not just a health problem, but also a development problem. How? By spreading fast mostly to young people and working-age adults, HIV/AIDS affects the economy, society, family and schooling in a country, weakening the country as a whole.
When 8% or more of a population becomes infected with HIV, the growth of the economy slows down, according to a World Bank study. This is because the labor force gets reduced and demands on the already overwhelmed government, and economic and health care systems increase.
Poor countries are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because:
  • They often don't have good resources to treat and help patients with HIV/AIDS.
  • Their health care systems are most likely already overburdened (or aren't well developed).
  • HIV/AIDS medication is often very expensive, not available everywhere in the world, and hard for poor countries to afford.
  • Basic care and treatment for an HIV/AIDS patient can cost as much as 2–3 times per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in the poorest countries.
  • Resources for educating the public about risky behavior (which often leads to HIV infections) are equally limited.
  • People and societies in general are often reluctant to talk about risky behavior because it touches on societal taboos and often goes against norms.
A growing number of children are orphaned by AIDS. In Africa alone, 13 million children have lost one or both parents to it. The number of AIDS orphans could jump to 25 million by 2010, according to the United Nations. These orphans are less likely to attend school, or receive good nourishment or proper healthcare.
The World Bank and other international organizations recognize that the spread of HIV is a major global development problem.
The World Bank works with other international organizations, like UNAIDSWorld Health Organization, and Street Kids International to:
In the last five years, the Bank has committed about US$2.1 billion through grants, loans, and credits to programs to fight HIV/AIDS. The Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP) for Africa has made available US$1.5 billion to 33 countries, including five sub-regional (multi-country) initiatives. Total Bank financing for HIV/AIDS since 1988 is around US$4 billion.
Talking about HIV/AIDS can be very difficult, but it can also be a matter of life and death. You and others in your community should feel comfortable talking about HIV/AIDS. Keeping quiet makes it even more difficult to prevent HIV from spreading. Many young people don't believe HIV is a threat to them, and many others don't know how to protect themselves from HIV.
We can all help reduce the spread of the disease and its impact on everyday life, and remove the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS.
1. First, Protect Yourself! This is your only life.
2. Teach Others To Protect Themselves. Many people still don't know how HIV is transmitted or that it is preventable.
3. Respect Those Who Are Infected. People infected by the HIV virus would never ask for it. Please learn to respect those with HIV/AIDS.
Visit the very informative and internationally active Advocates for Youth website for more information about what you, your family, teachers and peers can do to respect and protect others from the many stigmas attached to HIV and AIDS.
4. Get Involved. The world can beat HIV/AIDS, but we need concerned citizens like you to get involved. If you're ready to make a real difference in people's lives, check out the sites on this page for ideas on how you can help.
World AIDS Day is the international day of action on HIV and AIDS that takes place every year on December 1st. To find out how you can participate, visit the World AIDS Day website. For more information about how to get involved in the fight against AIDS, visit the Learn More links on this page. 
source: YouThink by WorldBank