Social Science Research Council

HIV/AIDS and Care-giving: With the support of UNAIDS, this project gives focus to one of the most critical issues affecting women’s survival – one that underpins the orphan crisis, macroeconomic planning, and health sector reform: the yet unmeasured toll that HIV and AIDS places on family care arrangements. The Social Science Research Council will support and strengthen the framework already established by the GCWA and its convening agencies (YWCA and HelpAge International) in the action area of care. The project will stimulate concrete actions to address some of the fundamental gender inequalities fuelling the AIDS epidemic by reinvigorating the work of existing GCWA partners and identifying new partners; by determining priorities in support of a global advocacy; and by strengthening the content and analysis of key challenges within this sector. Specifically, the project aims to (a) assess how unpaid care is reflected in macroeconomic, health policy, and HIV/AIDS planning and budgeting; and (b) develop new models that value unpaid care and consider opportunity and replacement costs and interactions with local health delivery systems. It will explore the potential for linking care movements through social movement mapping and analysis; and identify ways to support advocacy and mobilization at national and global levels.