World AIDS Day - December 1, 2004
"Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS"
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| Source:
CCP
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Family Planning: One of the Best-Kept Secrets in HIV Prevention
The developing world continues to face enormous challenges in addressing
women's and families' health problems, including reproductive health and
HIV/AIDS. One half of HIV-infected individuals worldwide are women; in
highly affected countries in Africa, women account for nearly 60 percent
of infections. Additionally, in many countries young women and girls are
at much higher risk of transmission than boys in similar age groups.
Family Planning can play an important role in protecting the health of
women, including those infected with HIV/AIDS and preventing new infections among infants. Integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS is a
priority for the Office of Population and Reproductive Health.
A recent USAID-funded study has shown that adding voluntary family
planning to
prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT)
services can prevent an additional 55,000 child deaths
and avert more than 150,000 unintended pregnancies.
Who Needs Family Planning?
Family Planning remains a key health priority, even in countries that
have large percentages of people infected with HIV/AIDS. Unmet need for
contraception remains high in many developing countries. In Zambia, for
example, nearly 30% of women of reproductive age were reported to have an unmet need for contraception in 2002; in Ethiopia unmet need was
nearly 35%. Need remains especially great among poor women. In Kenya,
unmet need among women in the lowest wealth quintile was nearly four
times that of women in the richest quintile.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are High Levels of Unmet Need for Contraception
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Source: Demographic and Health Surveys |
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| Source: Mohsen Allam |
Family planning is widely recognized as an important health intervention
and contributes to the success of many other health programs. On
average, infants born after intervals of less than two years are twice
as likely to die as those born after longer intervals. In addition, a
recent study among more than 400,000 women in Latin America found that
inter-pregnancy intervals of less than 14 months were associated with
much higher maternal death rates and that 27-32 month birth intervals
are associated with the lowest risk of maternal death and complications
such as third trimester bleeding, anemia and premature rupture of
membranes.
Family planning for birth spacing is a simple and low-cost intervention that can save the lives of many women, including those infected with HIV/AIDS.
USAID Technical Leadership
The Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Partner's Working Group is comprised of representatives from more than 25 different organizations working to integrate family planning and HIV/AIDS services. The goals of the working group are to regularly share information related to integration, identify research gaps, foster collaboration among organizations with integration programs, and reduce duplication of integration efforts. The Working Group is held on a biannual basis. The first meeting took place on September 23-24 in Washington DC and the second meeting will be held in April 2005. Family Health International and USAID are the primary organizers for the first year of meetings. Leadership will rotate between working group members each year.
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| Source: Win Morgan/CCP |
USAID's internal FP/HIV Integration Working Group focuses on providing technical leadership and direction for family planning and HIV/AIDS integration activities. Participants include individuals from the Global Health and Regional Bureaus. In 2003, the Working Group won an Agency Superior Group Award for pre-eminent technical leadership in identifying numerous cutting edge best practices in both HIV/AIDS and family planning programs.
For technical insights regarding Family Planning and HIV Integration, view the FP/HIV Technical Guidance [PDF, 252KB] published in 2003.
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