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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Health & Science

FG, UNDP Demand Stronger GBV Protection in Global Fund Plan

From ThisDay · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Justice and UNDP urge stronger protection against gender-based violence (GBV) in the country's HIV and TB response.
  • Officials warn that criminalization and stigma prevent vulnerable groups from accessing healthcare, citing high infection rates among key populations.
  • Recommendations include integrating GBV screening into HIV/TB services, removing barriers for key populations, and expanding services in correctional facilities.

Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Justice and the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) are calling for a more robust integration of legal protections and gender-based violence (GBV) services into the nation's response to HIV and Tuberculosis. They warn that current legal frameworks and societal stigma are significant barriers, preventing vulnerable populations from accessing essential healthcare.

These are not merely health statistics. They are the lived consequences of structural barriers to healthcare access, barriers that are, in significant measure, legal and institutional in nature.

— RotimiDescribing the impact of legal and institutional barriers on healthcare access for vulnerable populations.

At a workshop in Abuja, officials highlighted alarming statistics, noting that while HIV prevalence is 1.4% nationally, key populations and their partners account for 40% of new infections. Tuberculosis burdens are particularly high among these groups, with prevalence rates reaching over 20% among people who inject drugs, female sex workers, and transgender individuals. These figures underscore the severe consequences of structural barriers to healthcare access, many of which are legal and institutional.

When a person who needs HIV testing, PrEP, or antiretroviral treatment is afraid to enter a health facility because the law criminalises their existence, the health system has not failed, it has been structurally prevented from succeeding.

— RotimiExplaining how criminalization prevents individuals from seeking necessary medical care.

Discrimination from healthcare providers, including verbal abuse and refusal of service, is reported by 25% of key populations. The Ministry of Justice is advocating for several key changes: integrating GBV screening and initial support into HIV/TB service points, removing facility-level obstacles that deter key populations, and enhancing health and legal services within correctional facilities. They also emphasize the need for strengthened forensic medical capacity for human trafficking survivors and improved mental health support for key populations and GBV survivors.

Every GBV case that goes unreported… each of these is a health system failure with a legal dimension.

— RotimiLinking unreported GBV cases to failures within both the health and legal systems.
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Originally published by ThisDay. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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