HIV-prevention studies: Educate smarter, boost women’s earning power

Abstract

Two pilot studies that have been teaching income-building, communication and relationship skills to men and women in 3 informal settlements around Durban have nearly tripled participants’ earnings, and dramatically reduced intimate partner violence (IPV). The test probes could form the basis of an ambitious bid to address poverty and IPV, both major structural drivers of the HIV pandemic in South Africa, where gender relations are ‘incredibly patriarchal’, said lead researcher Professor Rachel Jewkes, Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC’s) Gender and Health Research Unit.