Papua New Guinea

Addressing HIV and Violence Against Women is central to reaching the MDGs!

With only five years left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, on 20 September 2010 world leaders will meet at a UN General Assembly to assess progress made on reaching MDG targets during the last decade and to present their plans on accelerating the achievements in the next few years.

The PNG Millennium Development Report released in early 2010, provides some reality check on progress made on MDGs. It shows that although progress is realized in some sectors and provinces, as a whole, there is significant variation among the regions with some regions pulling down the national average performance. This has been attributed to the limited interventions and support to address particular development challenges in these regions. In particular to this, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and gender issues require urgent action. Today in PNG, HIV prevalence among adults is estimated to be at 0.92% and women and girls account for 60% of all reported HIV infections. The MDG report highlights that if infection increase, advances made in the area of poverty reduction, health, education and other areas is likely to be affected as a result of the social economic impact that HIV poses on these developments.

Gender based violence is widespread in the country and is a key driver of the HIV epidemic. Recent studies conducted in Papua New Guinea by UNDP on women living with HIV and progress made on MDG 6 (HIV) and MDG 3 (gender equality), highlighted the inter linkages between gender based violence and the HIV epidemic. Women from PNG reported being subjected to psychological and physical violence from both within the family and by the members of the community almost on a daily basis. Women also reported that incidence of abuse mainly goes unreported as they feel this will merely serve to increase the intensity and frequency of violent conduct, and reflects the belief that they cannot receive protection against domestic violence.

Positive women who were consulted also felt that although the country's laws and policies are designed to protect the rights of women (and, especially, of women living with HIV), every day practices do not readily acknowledge these rights. This therefore, translates into a lack of awareness about these rights among women and girls, as well as into a lack of adequate law enforcement which perpetuates routine violation of laws.

It is noteworthy that PNG has made impressive strides on addressing HIV issues. Women who participated in the study felt that HIV related issues such as transmission, prevention, VCT were comprehensively addressed in schools; by and large they had access to voluntary testing and counseling even during pregnancy, labour, and post delivery. All women consulted were also on antiretroviral treatments which were provided to them free of charge. Women also faced less stigma and discrimination on grounds of being positive in comparison to other countries in Asia and Pacific. We need to ensure that these positive gains made in addressing HIV issues are not reversed because of gender based violence.

To reach the Millennium Development Goals much work needs to be done in PNG in addressing HIV and Violence Against Women. In this context UNDP as a trusted partner has been supporting the country on initiatives to bring about transformational change in the norms, values, attitudes and practices that accentuates as HIV and violence against women. Our work on leadership development for women living with HIV brings together positive women and other key stakeholders including Government Departments such as, Department for Community Development, National AIDS Council Secretariat, PNG Police, the Judiciary; Civil Society Organizations, the Church and our Bilateral and Multilateral partners.

UNDP stand committed to support PNG in reaching the MDGs.