Concept paper on the harmonization of women's rights movement and
organization working on women and HIV/AID

Introduction

There are many women (focused) organizations and those working on the
issues of women and HIV/AIDS located in different parts of Nigeria.
These
organizations focus on calling attention to women isues, protection of
their rights and how their situations can be improved. However there is
a
disconnect between these two important movements as they are scattered
and
they have been working independently of each other with low level of
interaction.

Women are not a homogeneous group, as they differ, so do their needs
but
their rights as women remain the same. Women living with HIV/AIDS are
first
and foremost women and their rights are women's rights.There is a
disconnect between women's right movement, advocates of women' rights
and
HIV/AIDS has entrenched the absence of a united front by women and a
unified
voice to articulate and call attention to the peculiar needs of women
living
with HIV/AIDS.

In Nigeria in the last 2 years there has been the organization of
constituencies based on their comparative advantages in which they
coordinate their activities in the different sectors e.g. NYNETA as
constituency of the youth, Interfaith coalition as constituency of
religious bodies. A coordinated woman constituency i.e. a united women
front is however missing. It is therefore important to coordinate and
harmonize activities of the women rights and HIV/AIDS groups in the
country in other to strengthen advocacy and ensure that gender equality

and rights of women inform HIV/AIDS programming.

Proposal:

The proposal is for the establishment of a platform for increased
involvement
of women and women orientation the National Response to HIV/AIDS. The
platform
will build on and strengthen, through coordination and harmonization,
existing
women' organization and those working on HIV/AIDS. The strengthened
platform
will forge a united front and stronger voice that will influence
national
response and push that agenda of women' right and HIV/AIDS in all
sectors.
It will be a recognized body with National Action Committee on AIDS
(NACA)
as a National Partnership Forum representing the interests and concerns
of
women. This is to ensure redress and protection of women and girls
which
has been exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The proposed platform is intended to coordinate/harmonize women
organizations
with a clear, common purpose and visions on women's rights and
HIV/AIDS.
The platform will ensure the coordination and harmonization of the
activities
of women' rights organization, those working on women and HIV/AIDS and
the
networking of women living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

Methodology
There will be a forum of 120 persons (maximum) made up of notable women
with
technical know-how on women issues/HIV/AIDS and political will,
selected by
SACAs/FACA, the donor community, women's rights organizations, women
and
HIV/AIDS movement. The consultative forum will meet for two days to
brainstorm
and map out strategies for pushing a women's agenda on HIV/AIDS which
will
be developed after the 2 day meeting must have agreed on the rallying
point
for coalition.

A technical working group is expected to be constituted during
this meeting and it expected to come out with a work plan which will be

presented to the country and all stakeholders. The meeting will start
with a
presentation of the concept paper on the harmonization on women's
rights
movement and organizations working on women and HIV/AIDS, followed by
plenary
sessions and group work on thematic issues (i.e. care and support,
treatment,
prevention, impact mitigation, etc) for the identification of rally
points.

Overall goal

The overall goal is to establish a unified platform to enable women
advocate
for and address the disproportionate vulnerability of women and girls
to HIV
infection.

Specific objectives:

To develop a women rights agenda for action on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria
To set up a coalition of women organization from and including
association
of women living with HIV/AIDS and networking of women organization to
move
the women and AIDS agenda forward.