NEWS
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2006 NEWS ARCHIVE
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DECEMBER
ICRW Hires New South Asia Regional Adviser
Dec. 22, 2006
ICRW is delighted to announce that Priya Nanda, Ph.D., has joined the ICRW India office in the new position of South Asia Regional Adviser.
Already known to many of ICRW's India partners, Nanda brings strong passion and expertise to gender and development issues in India and South Asia. She is an established researcher who has worked in India and globally on analyses of reproductive health and rights, health sector reform, gender and HIV/AIDS, and donor priorities for population and reproductive health. Nanda has significant skills in the area of monitoring and evaluation, community-based methodologies, and training.
She received her M.A. from the University of Delhi School of Economics and her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.
As Regional Adviser, she will lead efforts to develop new initiatives and partnerships in India and the South Asia region — primarily on population and reproductive health issues — through ICRW's Social and Economic Development (SED) Group. She also serves as the lead technical expert for SED projects in India, providing leadership and oversight for ICRW's technical work in these areas.
ICRW President, Other Experts Debate Gender's Role in International Development with WNYC's Brian Lehrer
Dec. 20, 2006
New York public radio's Brian Lehrer invited ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta and experts from the Association for Women's Rights and Development (AWID) and Save the Children to explore gender issues and the need to improve the lives of women in developing countries.
The conversation covered several issues, including microfinance, education, women in government, HIV and AIDS, and economic opportunities for women in poverty.
If you missed it, you can listen to the entire Dec. 20 show here.
ICRW Launches Gender-based Violence Project in the Balkans
Dec. 13, 2006
ICRW will build on lessons learned from the ISOFI project as it partners with CARE to reduce gender-based violence in the Balkans.
Violence against women and girls is a grave social and human rights concern affecting nearly all societies. A culture of violence, particularly against women, has become pervasive in the western Balkans since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Young men in particular are pressured from an early age to exhibit typically "manly" characteristics, which are often aggressive and even violent. Traditional patriarchal customs and norms foster silence at the community level regarding violence experienced by women.
This three-year program will use action research to clarify the experience, attitudes and behavior of young men related to gender-based violence in the western Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia), and measure impact of interventions on male attitudes and behavior relating to violence.
More information about ICRW's work on violence.
ICRW Receives Grant to Continue Child Marriage Work
Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation Gives $100,000
Dec. 5, 2006
ICRW, with generous support from the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, will continue its efforts to strengthen the response of U.S. policy-makers and the nonprofit community to reduce child marriage, and increase access to reproductive health information for married and unmarried adolescents.
Some 51 million girls, ages 15 to 19, worldwide are married and an additional 100 million will be married in the next decade if nothing changes. Teenage brides are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, more likely to suffer physical abuse at the hands of their spouse than women married after 18 and significantly less likely to continue in their education.
"Preventing young girls all over the world from early marriage should be a political winner for all parties," says ICRW Senior Policy Advocate Kathy Selvaggio. "Remarkably, a bill to that effect [the International Child Marriage Prevention and Assistance Act of 2006] continues to languish in the Senate."
"We are hopeful that the bill will be passed early in the next congressional session," she adds.
Learn more about child marriage.
Learn more about the International Child Marriage Prevention and Assistance Act of 2006.
Property Rights May Protect Women from Violence, AIDS
Dec. 5, 2006
Women own 15 percent of land worldwide, but evidence suggests that strengthening women’s property rights can provide some protection from the twin epidemics of gender-based violence and AIDS.
On Dec. 5, ICRW and the U.S. State Department hosted a forum to share findings and discuss next steps. Nata Duvvury, director of ICRW’s gender, violence and rights program, spoke of ICRW’s research in South Asia, Uganda and South Africa, which demonstrates that women’s ownership of housing and land can protect against violence by family members and mitigate the impact of AIDS.
Click here to read more about ICRW's work on violence.
Keep the Promise on Women and Girls
Dec. 1, 2006
ICRW joins the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and several other organizations this World AIDS Day to send a clear message to world leaders — AIDS responses are failing women, and governments must be held accountable for addressing the social, cultural and economic factors that continue to put women at risk.
We collectively call on the the world's governments to Keep the Promise on Women and Girls by ensuring immediate action to secure women's rights, investing more money in AIDS programs that work for women, and enabling women to access greater representation in decision making.
Read the entire joint statement. 
NOVEMBER
ICRW Joins UNAIDS, Others for World AIDS Day Event
Nov. 29, 2006
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), its Global Coalition on
Women and AIDS (GCWA) and a broad constellation of other co-sponsoring organizations will host a high-profile Capitol Hill luncheon event in Washington, D.C. in recognition of World AIDS Day 2006.
The Dec. 1 event will provide an interactive forum for lively discussion and debate about how the faith-based community can expand its leadership role in the global response to AIDS, particularly in confronting the devastating link between violence against women and girls and HIV worldwide.
Learn more.
Namibian Conference Raises Issue of Women's Health
Nov. 17, 2006
HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, high blood pressure and tuberculosis were some of the most relevant health issues that concerned women in Namibia. ICRW, through the Parliamentarians for Women's Health program, conducted a series of community-based assessments in three regions with the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Namibia to assess women's access to quality health care.
The assessment also found that women face many obstacles to obtaining quality health care, such as lack of correct knowledge and understanding about women's health; delays and long waiting lines; breaches of confidentiality by health care providers; and stigma.
At an Oct. roundtable, Parliamentarians for Women's Health personnel discussed the assessments with government officials and service providers. Namibian Deputy Home Affairs Minister Teopolina Mushelenga observed that the difficulties women face are aggravated by "harmful cultural practices, domestic violence, prostitution, early marriage, rape and food insecurity," reported the New Era, a Namibian newspaper.
The roundtable was used to evaluate the status of health care services, raise the awareness of women's health issues among government officials, and develop and implement recommendations to address the shortcomings in women's access to health care services.
Learn more about the PWH program.
Double Stigma of HIV and TB Cripples Health Care, Prevention Efforts
Nov. 15, 2006
Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common of HIV’s opportunistic infections, and in many high HIV prevalence settings, this has led people to assume that TB patients also are HIV-positive. New analysis by ICRW stigma expert Laura Nyblade (left) and ICRW partner Virginia Bond shows that patients who exhibit visible TB symptoms often face stigmatizing behavior similar to that faced by people with HIV, such as being ostracized, publicly humiliated and shunned by family and friends.
This double stigma of TB and HIV undermines the efforts of health practitioners trying to fight both diseases. People with TB are more reluctant to seek diagnosis or medical treatment because they fear the stigma and shame, which fuels the spread of TB.
"Programs and policies aimed at treating TB or HIV must understand the links between the two and work to address the social stigma associated with both diseases," says Nyblade, co-author of a recent article on the subject. "Greater education on how TB is transmitted may be one way to assuage people’s fears," she adds.
A summary of the research analysis can be found in "The Importance of Addressing the Unfolding TB-HIV Stigma in High HIV Prevalence Settings" published in the Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 16.
Learn more about ICRW's work on stigma.
Youth Are Willing, Capable Caregivers for People with AIDS
Nov. 13, 2006
A lesser known result of the feminization of the AIDS epidemic is a noticeable shortage of caregivers in many countries. Though women commonly bear the brunt of caregiving tasks, a recent program in rural Zambia trained more than 300 youth, many of them young men, to meet a range of care and support needs for individuals and families affected by HIV in rural Zambia.
Some 45 percent of the youth, who were involved in anti-AIDS clubs, performed caregiving tasks prior to the start of the training program. By the end of the training program, this proportion increased to about 80 percent.
Caring for someone living with AIDS, whether or not a caregiver is HIV-positive, presents many challenges including a lack of information about the disease, continuous caregiving duties and AIDS-related stigma, which may exclude caregivers from their social support network at a time they need it most.
Researchers initially feared that young men would be unwilling to perform some of the tasks traditionally performed by women, but the young men "responded positively to responsibilities that required them to challenge traditional gender norms," according to an article discussing the program co-authored by ICRW researcher Ellen Weiss.
A follow-on study continues to monitor program sustainability.
The article, "'We Are No Longer Called Club Members but Caregivers': Involving Youth in HIV and AIDS Caregiving in Rural Zambia" can be found in the Nov. 2006 edition of AIDS Care.
Intimate Partner Violence Linked to Men's HIV Risk, Says New Research
Nov. 9, 2006
Men who perpetrate physical and sexual violence against intimate partners are more likely than nonviolent men to engage in behavior associated with high HIV risk, according to a new article co-authored by ICRW Director of Gender, Violence and Rights Nata Duvvury (left).
The article, Perpetration of Partner Violence and HIV Risk Behavior among Young Men in the Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa, details a study of 1,275 sexually active young men (ages 15 to 26) and their behavior related to partner violence and high HIV risk, including substance abuse, casual sex with multiple partners and transactional sex.
According to the report, the severity and frequency of violent acts is directly proportional to the level of high-risk HIV behavior: Men who commit the most frequent and severe acts of intimate partner violence exhibit higher levels of HIV-risk behavior.
The article can be found in AIDS 2006, Vol. 20 No. 16.
Fall 2006 Newsletter Focuses on AIDS Stigma, Adolescent Health
Nov. 6 , 2006
ICRW's newsletter has a new look but the same great content. The newsletter will now come out four times a year to keep you up-to-date with the latest news about our projects, programs and accomplishments.
ICRW's fall newsletter highlights some major events in summer 2006, including:
- A child marriage awareness tour that traveled to Chicago and New York City in July to highlight recent finding on child marriage;
- An August symposium in Toronto to discuss AIDS-related stigma on the eve of the XVI International AIDS Conference; and
- A New Delhi event in September to share the results of a 10-year study on adolescent reproductive health with government officials, partners and nongovernmental organizations.
OCTOBER
ICRW President Receives Anne Roe Award, Discusses Education of Women
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Photo credit:
Rose Lincoln/ |
Oct. 26, 2006
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta (left) received the Anne Roe Award Oct. 25 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE). The award recognizes her contribution to women's professional growth and her model of leadership and excellence to women.
Before she received the award, Rao Gupta spoke on the importance of empowering women and girls, "Empowering women does not disempower men — power is not a finite commodity — more power to one, in the longterm means more power to all.
"And we have all the economic data of the benefits of investing in women to prove that."
GSE Dean Kathleen McCartney, introduced Rao Gupta by reading an e-mail from the student who initially nominated Rao Gupta for the prestigious award. According to ICRW Board Member Mohamed El-Erian, who was in attendance with fellow board member Joanna Breyer, "The e-mail spoke of Geeta's ability to inspire and lead; the ease to which she transitions from officialdom to villages; and the extent to which she has acted as a catalyst in getting people from all backgrounds interested in critical gender equality issues."
Rao Gupta emphasized that education is a "critical ingredient to empower women and reduce their disadvantage — but it is not enough. To truly empower women requires, at a minimum, education, access to economic resources and assets, reproductive health and rights, and a supportive social and policy context."
Click here to read her remarks, Unlocking the Power of Women: Is Education the Key?
Click here to read about the event in Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.
U.N.: Violence against Women Impedes Development
Tues., Oct. 10
A new U.N. report concludes that violence against women is an "obstacle to the achievement of equality, development and peace" worldwide. Gender-based violence hurts women physically and psychologically, and it hurts families and communities on social and economic levels, according to the report, In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence Against Women.
"Programs and policies aimed at reducing violence against women receive neither the attention nor resources necessary to significantly reduce the problem," says Nata Duvvury, ICRW's director of gender, violence and rights.
Duvvury contributed to the report along with former ICRW researchers Caren Grown, Subadra Panchanadeswaran and Katherine Weiland.
Read the report.
SEPTEMBER
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to Speak Oct. 11 at ICRW's Annual Irene Tinker Lecture
Sen to Ask What Difference Does Gender Make to International Development
Fri., Sept. 29
World renowned scholar and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen (left) will speak about gender and the role of women in alleviating poverty and improving poor people's overall health and well-being at the Oct. 11 lecture, "The Gender Perspective: What Difference Does It Make?" co-sponsored by ICRW and the Brookings Institute.
Learn more.
Read the media advisory.
ICRW Completes 10-year Project on Adolescent Health
Thurs., Sept. 28
Many adolescents in India suffer from poor reproductive health and limited access to appropriate health services. New findings from a 10-year research program by ICRW and several India-based partners suggest that one of the best — and fastest — ways to improve adolescents' health is to involve parents, in-laws and the communities where they live.
Six studies looked at several adolescent health issues to assess their effectiveness in improving health outcomes and to consider costing questions such as which interventions are most cost-effective. Health issues ranged from child marriage, and girls’ poor nutrition and rates of iron-deficiency anemia to the prevalence of reproductive tract infections among married and unmarried youth.
Learn more.
Read the full report (1.2 MB).
Harvard Honors ICRW President with Prestigious Anne Roe Award
Thurs., Sept. 21
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta (left) will receive the Anne Roe Award from the Harvard Graduate School of Education for her contribution to women's professional growth and her model of leadership and excellence to women.
The award, presented biennially, is named for the first woman tenured in the Harvard Faculty of Education (in 1963). Past recipients of the award include Gloria Steinem (1999), Bernice Sandler (1988), Owanah Anderson (1981) and Sister Joel Read (1980).
Rao Gupta will deliver an address, Unlocking the Power of Women: Is Education the Key?, at the Oct. 25 award ceremony.
Why Do So Few in Congress Support a Child Marriage Prevention Bill?
Wed., Sept. 13
Preventing 13-year-old girls all over the world from forced marriage should be a political winner for all parties, but a bill to this effect is having trouble moving through Congress says ICRW Senior Policy Advocate Kathy Selvaggio as a guest blogger for RHRealityCheck.org.
Learn more about the child marriage prevention bill.
Read the blog entry.
New U.N Agency for Women Imminent
Thu., Sept. 7
The High Level Panel on U.N. System-Wide Coherence will recommend that the United Nations create a new agency for women, Ambassador Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, predicted with confidence at a presentation today in Washington, D.C. The recommendations are expected to be officially released in three months.
Ambassador Lewis spoke at a forum co-sponsored by ICRW and the Center for Global Development (CGD) entitled A New UN Agency for Women: Who Needs It, on Sept. 7, 2006.
Read ICRW's press release.
A New U.N. Agency for Women — Who Needs It?
Tues., Sept. 5
A new U.N. women’s agency is necessary to redress decades of U.N. neglect of women and to transform societies into places where men and women live as equals. So argues U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis as he steps down after five years in that position.
A lively discussion following his remarks will examine whether a new U.N. agency would indeed make a difference.
Read the media advisory.
AUGUST
New Book Examines Links between Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health
Mon., Aug. 21
What do trade policies have to do with the reproductive health of women? According to a new book edited by current and former ICRW staff, global and national trade policies affect the quality, quantity and cost of reproductive health services, and can have very specific gendered consequences. For example, global trade agreements that lower trade tariffs in developing countries often result in less government revenue, which can lead to less government spending on women’s reproductive health services.
The book, Trading Women’s Health & Rights? Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health in Developing Economies, uses case studies from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Vietnam to show direct and indirect links between liberalized trade and reproductive health, according to publisher Zed Books.
Order the book.
AIDS Stigma Threatens Hard-won Progress
ICRW Researchers present new evidence at Stigma symposium, XVI International AIDS Conference
Fri., Aug. 11 
More money than ever is being spent to fight AIDS and expand HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs. But new research from ICRW finds that the fear of AIDS stigma and its consequences — such as the loss of a job or property, threats of violence, abandonment and poor medical care — is limiting the reach and effectiveness of these efforts, threatening hard-won progress against AIDS around the world.
ICRW hosted a symposium Aug. 12, the eve of the XVI International AIDS Conference, to discuss new research about HIV/AIDS-related stigma. ICRW's researchers then participated in the XVI International AIDS Conference — speaking at plenaries, displaying poster presentations and participating in satellite events all week.
ICRW, IAS to Recognize Innovation in Women and AIDS Research with Young Investigator Prize at AIDS Conference
Wed., Aug. 2
ICRW and the International AIDS Society (IAS), with the support of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), will honor Penelope Campbell of Jamaica with the Young Investigator Prize: Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS at the XVI International AIDS Conference. The prize recognizes a young woman investigator from a resource-limited setting whose work demonstrates excellence in research and/or practice that addresses women, girls and gender issues related to HIV and AIDS.
Read the press release.
More about ICRW's participation in the XVI International AIDS Conference.
JULY
Durbin, Hagel Introduce Bill to Help End Child Marriage
Thurs., July 13
Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) introduced the International Child Marriage Prevention and Assistance Act today, which calls on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other relevant agencies to devise a strategy to fight child marriage as part of broader development efforts, including improving education, health care and governance.
Read the press release.
Prevalence of Child Marriage Worldwide Hinders Aid Effectiveness
Wed., July 12
Billions of dollars in U.S. development assistance to reduce poverty, ensure the survival of infants and mothers in pregnancy and childbirth, fight AIDS and invest in girls’ education could be used more effectively by also targeting child marriage, according to experts from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Center for Global Development (CGD). Read more.
Addressing Child Marriage Can Improve U.S. Aid Effectiveness
Tue., July 11
New research and success stories of on-the-ground efforts to reduce child marriage point the way for improving the lives of millions of girls worldwide and strengthening U.S. international efforts to reduce poverty, ensure the survival of infants and mothers in pregnancy and childbirth, fight AIDS and invest in girls’ education.
ICRW and the Population Reference Bureau co-sponsored an event to discuss child marriage and ways to improve the effectiveness of U.S. development assistance. Read the press release.
MAY
Parliamentarians for Women’s Health Launches Web Site
Tue., May 16
Parliamentarians for Women's Health — a groundbreaking initiative in East and southern Africa that works with parliamentarians and communities to improve women's and girls' access to health services — today launched its new Web site, an essential resource for program staff, researchers, donors, students and others working in the field of international development. Read the press release.
ICRW Releases New How-to Guide on Reducing Violence and AIDS Stigma
Manual Provides Practical Tools for Community Groups in Developing Countries
Wed., May 3
Stigma and gender-based violence fuel the HIV/AIDS pandemic by limiting access to and use of HIV/AIDS-related services for prevention, treatment, care and support. ICRW's HIV/AIDS Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention (SVRI) manual provides communities with practical tools they can use to address stigma, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. Read the report and press release.
APRIL
HIV Stigma is a Major Barrier to Care, Says ICRW President
Mon., April 24
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta discussed the effects of HIV and AIDS on women in developing countries on WAMU's award-winning The Kojo Nnamdi Show. You can listen to the hour-long program here.
When is Better Data Bad?
ICRW responds to articles dealing with lower-than-predicted HIV rates in parts of Africa
Fri., April 14
ICRW responded to two articles published in The Washington Post which suggested that the recent good news of lower-than-predicted HIV-infection rates in parts of Africa somehow is bad news for UNAIDS and researchers involved in reporting on and fighting AIDS.
In a letter to the editor submitted to The Washington Post, Geeta Rao Gupta, president of ICRW, stated that as new data becomes available, organizations such as UNAIDS and ICRW are better able to target their intervention programs to be most effective.
Read the letter here.
MARCH
Women's Property Rights at Heart of HIV/AIDS Fight, ICRW Says
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta Speaks at Congressional Human Rights Caucus
Thurs., March 30
U.S. efforts to fight HIV and AIDS around the world are less effective because they fail to address the root causes of women’s vulnerability in this epidemic, says ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta. Read the press release and her remarks.
ICRW Celebrates 30 Years of Groundbreaking Research on International Women's Day
Tue., March 7
On March 8, ICRW will commemorate its 30th anniversary with a gala, "Celebrating the Power of Partnerships," featuring a special video message by Oscar- and Golden Globe-winner Geena Davis, the "Investing in Women" awards presentation, a live auction and moonlight dancing. Click here to read more about the gala.
JANUARY
New ICRW Project Explores Gender Mainstreaming
Fri., Jan. 27
ICRW has launched a new research project funded by the World Bank to review and improve the use of gender mainstreaming in international anti-poverty policies and programs. Read the press release.