Towards empowered participation : stories and reflections.

  • Great Britain. International Institute for Environment and Development
Date:
2008
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Towards empowered participation : stories and reflections. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    This example from Namibia does not entirely do away with the problems of selection and representation. But it does build into its workings a commitment to consult and liaise with communities. Organisations need to recognise that when they do not involve us in ways that are respectful and meaningful the quality of programmes and policies suffers and their impact is lessened. The longer we wait to involve HIV-positive women, the more time is wasted in addressing the challenges around HIV faced by countries and commu- nities. We realise that our efforts to move organisations from CONTACT DETAILS Collective authorship by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS International Support Office Unit 6 Building 1 Canonbury Yard 190a New North Road London, N1 7BJ UK Email: info@icw.org Website: www.icw.org tokenistic to meaningful behaviour may make us unpopular (particularly when organisations seek to work with us so that they can tick the right boxes). This is partly because it involves HIV-negative women and men questioning their own role in tackling this pandemic and partially because we are often working with organisations with more resources and power than we have. We are not just asking others to think about this issue — we are asking everyone to ask themselves: What am | doing, and what is my organisation doing, to meaning- fully involve HIV-positive women?’ 5, Ee