[Swaziland] Women sink deeper into poverty

from The Swazi Observer

By Howard Mavuso

The Swaziland Media Gender Watch (SMEGWA), in collaboration with Gender and Media in Southern Africa (GEMSA), hosted a policy workshop on unpaid care work and HIV and AIDS last Thursday and Friday.

The workshop was aimed at encouraging development of gender sensitive policies and budgets to promote greater acknowledgment of women’s contribution to the economy and society as well as ensure better provision of necessities for people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

According to Kubi Rema, GEMSA Chief Executive Officer, women have become heads of households and sunk deeper into poverty, which particularly affects female-headed households.

“Much of the increased poverty in the households is directly linked to their care-giving responsibilities” stated Rema.

She further mentioned that in sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 4.3 million people need AIDS home-based care, but only 12 percent receive it .

Approximately, 90 percent of AIDS care takes place in the home and is mostly done by women and girls.

“Because this work is unpaid for, it is often taken for granted and under-valued. Caring for someone suffering from AIDS can increase the work load of a family care-taker by one third,” said Rema.

Research states that there are generally a few men involved in voluntary home-based care work, hence something should be done to assist care givers.

Government should provide individual carers with direct support in the form of cash stipends and other material things, including food parcels, information and training on how to care for a patient, as well as where to receive counselling and assistance for their own emotional needs. The UN Secretary General’s 2004 special task force report on women and girls and HIV and AIDS in southern Africa, reveals that at all stages of the pandemic, women and girls bear most of the social and economic consequences. Furthermore, the distribution of esponsibilities for unpaid care work contributes to a situation, whereby women usually experience poverty to a greater extent than men. Unpaid care work also restricts women and girls’ part icipation in other activities, such as income generating activities and education. Such, states the resport, results in women’s contribution to society being less rewarded in monetary as well as social terms.