CATALIST is committed to the employment of women across the project.

Crosscutting Issues

According to a technical briefing published in 2007 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), "Globally, it is estimated that HIV has infected 2.3 million children under the age of 15 and 10 million youth between the ages of 15 and 24, the majority of whom are female. Young women and girls are at higher risk of becoming infected than young boys and men.... Poverty, economic dependence, lack of information, and harmful traditional practices make women vulnerable to unprotected and coercive sex. These same forces limit females’ educational opportunities, perpetuating the social conditions that relegate women to a lower status than men and facilitate the spread of HIV."

In the Great Lakes region, these issues of gender equality and the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa are relevant to key areas of CATALIST's work, particularly within its HIMO strategies and agricultural intensification activities. The project supports a proactive examination of the relationship between gender disparities and the spread of HIV/AIDS within the Great Lakes region. CATALIST will work with its implementing partners to include appropriate steps in its programs to contribute to the mitigation of the impacts of HIV/AIDS by addressing gender inequality.