What Works for Women and Girls

Gaps in Programming—Female Sex Workers1. Health care provider training is needed to increase confidentiality and decreasediscrimination against sex workers seeking health services.2. Interventions are needed to provide sex workers with greater control and accessover money and resources, which can have a positive impact on HIV-related riskreduction.3. Changing laws and policies, ending police violence, workshops and other mechanismsare needed to protect sex workers from violence and rape.4. HIV and AIDS programmes are disrupted during raids and other policing measures.1. Health care provider training is needed to increase confidentiality and decrease discriminationagainst sex workers seeking health services. Studies found that significant proportionsof female and transgender sex workers did not visit health facilities because of lack of confidentiality,discrimination, and lack of counseling when accessing HIV testing.Gap noted, for example, in Nepal (Ghimire, 2008); India (Saha et al., 2008a); Vietnam(Ngo et al., 2007) and Botswana, Namibia and South Africa (Arnott and Crago, 2009).2. Interventions are needed to provide sex workers with greater control and access over moneyand resources, which can have a positive impact on HIV-related risk reduction. Studiesfound that if sex workers had access to resources under their control, women were morelikely to negotiate condom use.Gap noted, for example, in Dominican Republic (Ashburn et al., 2007); Nigeria (Oyefara,2007); South Africa, Namibia and Botswana (Arnott and Crago, 2009).3. Changing laws and policies, ending police violence, workshops and other mechanisms areneeded to protect sex workers from violence and rape. Studies found sex workers experiencedhigh rates of violence and rape from clients and police, and that fear of arrest was abarrier to accessing health services.Gap noted, for example, in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa (Arnott and Crago,2009); South Africa (Gould and Fick, 2008); Serbia (Simic and Rhodes, 2009);Thailand (Ratinthorn et al., 2009); India (Gurnani et al., 2008); Nigeria (Ezire et al.,2008); Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Crago et al., 2008); Kenya (Okal etal., 2008, Federation of Women Lawyers FIDA Kenya, 2008); China (Choi et al., 2008);and in Russia (Aral et al., 2003 cited in Stachowiak and Peryshkina, 2007).WHAT WORKS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS89