Country Projects

Landlocked in southern Africa, Botswana’s population numbered 1.8 million in 2003. The nation has been hit hard by HIV and AIDS with one of the highest known rates of HIV infection. In 2003, one in three adults was living with HIV and AIDS; more than half of them were women. Due to the epidemic, life expectancy has dropped precipitously from 56 years in the 1970s to 36 years for women in 2003, while the population growth rate is expected to plunge to -0.4 percent by 2015.

Among Kenya’s total population of 32.7 million, more than a million people are living with HIV and AIDS. Despite recent declines in HIV prevalence rates in Kenya, women bear a disproportionate burden of the disease, comprising 60 percent of people living with HIV and AIDS. Women are largely marginalized in Kenya, and the country’s efforts to combat the pandemic have failed to address women’s issues such as treatment of HIV-positive widows, property rights and domestic violence, all of which contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Namibia is one of the top five AIDS-affected countries in the world. And women bear the greater burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Among Namibia’s population of 2 million, more than half of the estimated 210,000 living with HIV and AIDS are women. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Namibia is made worse by attitudes toward women and girls. Violence against women is pervasive in Namibia, and women continue to face barriers in accessing education, income and health care.

AIDS has spread rapidly across Tanzania and is one of the most significant challenges facing this nation today. At the end of 2003, 1.6 million of Tanzania’s 36.9 million people were living with HIV and AIDS, and more than half—840,000—were women. Even more devastating, approximately 60 percent of new HIV infections are occurring among Tanzania’s youth, particularly its young women. Largely because of the high prevalence of AIDS, population growth rates have dropped from 3.0 percent to 1.4 percent, and life expectancy is now estimated at 46 years.