While sub-Saharan Africa is home to just 11 percent of the world’s population, it currently accounts for more than 70 percent of all estimated global HIV cases. Africa represents 24 of the world’s 25 most-affected countries, and Botswana’s HIV prevalence rate places it first among those nations. According to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, nearly 40 percent of all Batswana between the ages of 15 and 49 are HIV-positive, and women represent nearly six out of 10 adult cases. 

In many ways, Botswana symbolizes the tremendous challenge that HIV/AIDS poses to African development in the 21^st century. It is blessed with sizable diamond reserves that have fueled rapid economic growth since independence and have raised incomes for tens of thousands of its 1.7 million citizens to world-class standards. Indeed, it is estimated that the average life expectancy of Botswana’s citizens would be 74 years in the absence of HIV/AIDS, or nearly as high as average life expectancy in the U.S. Yet the impact of HIV/AIDS, which contributes to the death more than 25,000 Batswana every year, will likely reduce the nation’s average life expectancy to 27 by 2010.

The Government of Botswana has earned international praise for the decisive action it has taken to stem the tide of its national HIV/AIDS pandemic.  It is the only African nation – and one of just a handful of nations across the globe – that has committed to providing all of its HIV-positive citizens with free access to antiretroviral drug therapy, and it has invested considerable resources in public education campaigns designed to provide every age group with effective and appropriate information about what they can do to avoid risk behaviors that enhance susceptibility to infection.

Botswana has also invested heavily in increasing the access of its lower-income citizens to education and economic opportunity, but many young women in poorer outlying communities remain highly vulnerable to HIV because they lack access to independent income-generating activities and have the potential to be abused and exploited in their relationships with male partners. Because many adult women and adolescent girls continue to lack direct access to cash income, their ability to successfully resist sexual demands from male partners is greatly undermined.

ADF has provided Women Against Rape (WAR) with funding to train impoverished women in income-generating skills, identify potential market niches for new businesses, and assist participants in gaining access to credit for the development of sustainable micro enterprises. 

“The object of our program is to break the dependency syndrome that results from women not having their own income and their own resources,” says WAR Coordinator Chibuya Dabutha. “We will be conducting research on viable small businesses for women in Ngamiland – from cooking, to sewing, to basketry for the local tourist industry – and working with women from across northern Botswana to train them in starting and managing their own small businesses.”

WAR will work with the staff of ADF's Botswana partner organization, Action for Economic Empowerment Trust (AEET), in assessing market opportunities for women, designing business-skills workshops, and conducting participatory monitoring and evaluation of the project.