This research examines the participation of women in the HIV and AIDS
policy process between 2003 and 2009. Participation has been an integral
part of Swaziland‘s HIV and AIDS policy since the country adopted a multisectoral
response to the pandemic in the late 1990s. As a concept and
practice, participation is highly contested and political. The study sought to
find out what type and quality of involvement Swaziland offers to women in
its status as the last absolute monarchy in the African continent.
The thesis relies on interviews and documentary research to establish its
findings. It tracks the role women played at each stage of policy making,
from agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy
implementation to policy assessment. The study also interrogates the shape
of the participation space as well as power relations that define it. Women‘s
advocacy and collaborative efforts are investigated to determine the type of
strategies women used to increase their influence in the process.
The study will argue that women‘s participation in the HIV and AIDS policy
process or any other development process in Swaziland is in vain if their
inferior legal status and other forms of discrimination are not fully
addressed. While women can have increased access to political and policy
making processes in government, their chances of bringing about change are
severely undermined by the entrenchment of their subordination at every
level of society. Instead of shying away from feminism, women should
consider and adopt a vigorous, conscious, and unrelenting feminist agenda,
which will challenge unfair gender laws and cultural norms.