What Works for Women and Girls

What Works—Strengthening the Enabling Environment: Promoting Women’s Employment,Income and Livelihood Opportunities1. Increased employment opportunities, microfinance, or small-scale income-generatingactivities can reduce behavior that increases HIV risk, particularly among young people.Promising Strategies:2. Access to treatment can result in a rapid increase in employment and income for peopleliving with HIV.3. Engagement of trained women living with HIV can positively impact workplace HIVpolicies.EVIDENCE1. Increased employment opportunities, microfinance, or small-scale income-generatingactivities can reduce behavior that increases HIV risk, particularly among young people. 2Secondary analysis of quantitative and qualitative data in South Africa from IMAGE(see Pronyk et al., 2006) found that after two years of follow-up, young women ages 14to 35 who had received microfinance loans to establish small businesses, along withtraining on gender and HIV, were more likely to have accessed VCT and less likely tohave had unprotected sex at last intercourse, as well as being more likely to have hadmore communication concerning HIV with sexual partners and others. “…Data fromfocus group discussions and key informant interviews indicated a sense of enhancedbargaining power among intervention participants” (p. 1663). Qualitative data from nonparticipantobservation of 160 women attending microfinance loan meetings duringone year, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and diaries of trainingfacilitators were used along with quantitative data. One hundred and twelve womenin the intervention group and 108 in the control group were followed and interviewed.(Pronyk et al., 2008). (Gray II) (microfinance, employment, risk behavior, South Africa)In 2004, a nine-month-long SHAZ! (Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe)program provided 16 to 19 year-old poor, out-of-school girls just outside of Harare withan integrated microcredit, HIV education and behavior change program and resulted inincreased HIV knowledge, increased equity in relationships, and condom use but low2 Note: In some cases, microcredit can increase violence against women if the intervention is not carefullydesigned and appropriate to the local context (Schuler et al., 1998; Gupta et al., 2008a).WHAT WORKS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS319