African Development Forum 2000 AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge

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African Development Forum 2000

AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge

Press Release

by International Organization for Migration Addis Ababa

4 December 2000

“We must create new paradigms of health and migration that allow us to better manage population movement as all people are equal and migrants are no exception”

Mrs. Ndioro Ndiaye, IOM Deputy Director General

During the ADF, on Monday 4 December 2000, IOM took the lead in a special breakout session on the theme “Leadership Role in Responses for Migrants, Refugees and Mobile Population”.

Opening the session, Mrs. Ndiaye, called for new policies and new ways of thinking about the uprooting that characterizes refugees and migrants all over the world. She further called for the need to place population disruption and movements high on the agenda of health development in Africa and bring it to the attention of our leaders and policy makers.

Today, Africa is confronted with the largest number of migrants, refugees and internally displaced people from any region in the world. Many find themselves in locations where they cannot be absorbed and where they remain peripheral to mainstream society and are economically and socially marginalised

In some parts of Africa, growing land and population pressures have forced people to move in order to survive. In other regions of the continent environmental and climatic changes have caused land erosion, desertification and famines that have also caused massive movement of people from rural to urban areas. In the same way, rural/urban migrants also tend to be forced into given areas of cities where their high levels of unemployment and disorganization also make them readily identifiable.

The stress, loneliness and insecurity of forced and voluntary migration imposes on people the need to establish new coping strategies for survival, and the search for emotional support and security which is quickly translated into the search for sexual relationships that are often transitory and casual.

Recalling personal experiences several participants noted that population displacement is the first determinant in the spread of HIV/AIDS. People move without social

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preparedness and often get caught in a vicious cycle of meeting basic needs of food and shelter. In refugee camps, women look for security amongst the few men available in the camps with the desperate need for family, children and protection. This has led to a high level of promiscuity, stated another discussant, who had been travelling to various refugee camps in Africa.

Country presentations outlined various scenarios of truck drivers who indulge in high risk behavior along major trucking routes all over Africa; mine workers who flock from various regions in search for wealth; commercial sex workers, driven by poverty, who fall prey to easy money offered by such mobile workers; the physically handicapped and disabled girls who are marginalized, and the military including peace-keeping forces who add to the HIV\AIDS pandemic.

Another participant called for a study on the impact of tourism on AIDS, as this was a critical area, which has not been the subject of AIDS research to date. Reversing the trend in refugee camps which tend to focus on food and shelter needs; alleviating transit formalities on border that harbor high risk sexual behavior; involving employers and trade unions; establishment of an epidemiological monitory stations at sub-regional level and empowering mobile groups to take leadership role were amongst the solutions offered by the session.

In order to address the massive movements of refugees/migrants and IDP’s the

participants called for strategic actions to be undertaken at global, regional, national and local levels including the development of comprehensive, well coordinated and multi- sectoral HIV/AIDS prevention programmes involving major sending, transit and receiving countries. And where appropriate, such tripartite health programmes should address cross-border traffic and highway zones that have high HIV prevalence rates.

Migrants and refugees are highly exposed to sexual abuses including trafficking of human beings. International treaties and agreements on repatriation/trafficking of women and commercial sex workers need to be upscaled to encourage compliance and ratification by all countries. To this end, national laws should be implemented in accordance with

international human rights obligations.

Members of the target community, IDP’s, migrants and refugees must be involved at all stages from designing, implementing and promoting HIV/AIDS programmes. They should be empowered in taking a leadership role in this regard. Community level interventions should include host community and local population.

The meeting concluded on the note that all stakeholders (the government, civil society, community, NGO’s, private sector, donors, the United Nations and International

organizations) should work in partnership and strengthen activities to advocate for the

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inclusion of migrants, refugees and mobile population in national health policy and programmes.