Skills-building for Gender Mainstreaming in HIV/AIDS Research and Practice

The impact of gender in fuelling HIV/AIDS has become a fundamental aspect of addressing the pandemic. It is clear that gender plays a pivotal role in how women and men respond to counselling, testing, treatment, care and prevention programmes. This report contains the presentations delivered at the gender and HIV/AIDS-themed sessions held during the 3rd African Conference of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA), held in Dakar, in October 2005. The first section provides an overview of some of the critical gender and HIV/AIDS theory; the second section contains presentations on how to design gender-sensitive research and how to extract gender-relevant data from existing research data, as well as how to move from research to advocacy to policy; presentations in the third section contain worksheets that can be used in training others to use a gendered lens. SAHARA provides a vehicle for the sharing of scientific research and information, and a platform for scientists, policy-makers, programme implementers and communities in Africa to discuss ways to improve HIV/AIDS-related policies, programmes and strategies.