tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/transactional-sex-18687/articlesTransactional sex – The Conversation2023-06-08T14:08:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2056972023-06-08T14:08:14Z2023-06-08T14:08:14ZSex, money and love: what South African university students say about romance and dating in a material age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529083/original/file-20230530-15-2ezsot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young women are not, as some believe, passive sexual beings. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DavideAngelini/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2012.664660?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab&aria-labelledby=full-article">Transactional sex</a> – the exchange of consensual sex for material support like gifts, money or food – <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-nigerian-students-told-us-about-transactional-sex-on-campus-116610">occurs</a> on <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-in-sugar-babies-mirrors-increase-in-student-sex-work-44377">university campuses</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/student-sex-work-is-happening-and-universities-need-to-respond-with-health-services-167767">many parts of the world</a>.</p>
<p>South Africa is no exception. Some scholars have highlighted the importance of understanding transactional sexual relationships beyond seeing it only (or mostly) as a way for young women to mitigate poverty, or because they want to enjoy the advantages of what is perceived as an elite and glamorous lifestyle. It’s more complicated than that. </p>
<p>We came together as a trio of psychology scholars to <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gab/article/view/230358">explore</a> how young South African female university students construct themselves as sexual beings, and negotiate dating and intimate relationships. </p>
<p>Our findings highlight that young women view transactional intimate relationships from multiple levels, including family experiences, the cultures they are embedded in and broader social contexts. These factors all influence how they articulate their understanding of intimate relationships.</p>
<p>Financial considerations may compel and shape their choice of sexual partners. But they aren’t the only factor. Others include the chance to get work, to advance their careers or to unlock educational opportunities.</p>
<p>All of this challenges the idea that young adult women choosing to enter sexual relationships that can meet their financial aspirations are not agents in their relationships.</p>
<h2>A variety of reasons</h2>
<p>For the study, we conducted focus groups with 14 women students at one South African university. We were interested in their perceptions and understanding of transactional relationships – some reflected on their own experiences, while others reflected on those of others they knew. All were aged between 19 and 26. While the number of participants was relatively small, their perceptions were helpful in assisting us to get some understanding of how women students perceive transactional relationships.</p>
<p>The participants explained that they and other young women they knew engaged in intimate relationships for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they want to meet their love and sexual needs; sometimes they want to enhance their socio-economic and social standing within their peer group and wider society. The latter arrangement has been referred to by some researchers as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4875790/">sexual-economic relationships</a>, which enhance one’s social standing or result in class mobility for the young women involved in transactional sex. </p>
<p>When talking about these sorts of sexual-economic relationships, the participants in our study offered an example of how a man’s financial status is gauged: by the car he drives.</p>
<p>A sexual relationship with a man who has a good job is seen as a safer option than one with an unemployed, unmotivated man who is unable to provide or meet the young women’s consumer expectations. A man’s ability to work hard was said to “count” in terms of his appeal to women. This is reflected in some of the comments made by the young women in our study:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most girls my age group tend to go for guys who have money or who are well established. In a sense of where they are going with their lives. Most girls are tired of going for guys who just sit at home and do nothing the whole day.</p>
<p>I don’t think relationships do exist, nowadays, I don’t think so, it’s more about material, what don’t you have … if a guy comes to you driving a Volvo and a guy comes to you driving a Mazda 3, the latest, I don’t think girls will go for the guy driving a Mazda, but the one driving a Volvo, that’s all, that’s how I see it recently.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some transactional relationships may offer the pretence of real love and create the illusion for the male sexual partner that he is the only object of the young woman’s affection. Other relationships are initiated on the implicit understanding that they are non-exclusive or multi-partner arrangements, with a tacit agreement not to discuss other sexual partners.</p>
<h2>Navigating the perils</h2>
<p>But that doesn’t mean people are necessarily happy about non-exclusive relationships. Mistrust, jealousy and anger arise at times.</p>
<p>If a man has multiple girlfriends in a transactional arrangement and they learn about each other, the women often turn their anger towards each other. This may lead the women to try and “stake their claim”. For example, some told us that, in a sense, one becomes a “PI” (private investigator) assessing or “researching” their partner’s “true colours” or “their intentions and motives” and hoping for “transparency” from their partners. These concerns often centred on concerns about contracting HIV and AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases because their boyfriends had multiple partners.</p>
<p>It also became clear that our participants did not have much faith in any future marriages lasting for a long time or that their husbands would be faithful. But this didn’t mean that they didn’t want to experience genuine love or to pursue marriage that would also result in having children.</p>
<h2>Nuance</h2>
<p>This research makes it clear that there is a great deal of nuance around how young women negotiate their intimate relationships with men. Our research has shown us that the nature of transactional relationships can no longer be solely understood within the frames of disenfranchised young women and men as the embodiment of agency. </p>
<p>Rather, it is critical to engage the ways in which our consumeristic and materialistic global society seems to dictate what is “normal” and how this, in turn, plays a role in how young women choose to engage in transactional relationships. </p>
<p><em>Precious Sipuka and Christine Laidlaw co-authored this article and the research paper on which it is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Puleng Segalo receives funding from The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. </span></em></p>There is a great deal of nuance around how young women negotiate their intimate relationships with men.Puleng Segalo, Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1859182022-08-03T16:04:30Z2022-08-03T16:04:30ZUnequal power relations driven by poverty fuel sexual violence in Lake Chad region<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476293/original/file-20220727-23-9my1au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women wait for food distribution to commence at the Government Girls Secondary School IDP camp in Monguno, Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?family=editorial&phrase=women%20and%20girls%20in%20IDP%20camp%20in%20Nigeria">gettyimages/Jane Hahn for the Washington Post</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There have been multiple instances of sexual violence against women and girls in the Lake Chad region since <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-boko-haram-has-evolved-over-the-past-ten-years-126436">terrorism activity started in the area in 2009</a>. The region includes Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.</p>
<p>Acts of sexual violence have been carried out by government security forces, aid workers and members of the local population. Amnesty International has called the situation in north-eastern Nigeria, which is near Lake Chad, a “<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AFR4449592021ENGLISH.pdf">rape epidemic</a>”.</p>
<p>In a recent paper <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10220461.2021.1927166">we explored the factors</a> behind conflict-related sexual violence. Our focus was on on terrorism-affected north- eastern Nigeria. We argued that terrorism creates poor economic conditions that, in turn, worsen the unequal power relations between women and girls, on the one hand, and security forces and aid workers on the other. </p>
<p>These power relations are affected by the fact that, in particular, women are unable to earn a living from subsistence farming. This makes them dependent on aid. As our research found, this dependence intensifies their vulnerability to sexual violation by security force personnel and aid workers who may exploit their positions of relative power. </p>
<p>Our research also showed that the dire economic conditions in the region meant that women and girls were compelled to engage in transactional sex in exchange for money, food, shelter, protection and marriage. This added to their vulnerability to sexual violence.</p>
<p>In addition, we argue that the lax government response to the rise of conflict-related sexual violence has contributed to its growth. State security agents and humanitarian aid workers play a significant role in the perpetuation of conflict-related sexual violence. The government’s docile responses enable and reinforce the continuation of this violence.</p>
<p>Our research highlights the importance of effective management of the camps for internally displaced people, and of prosecution, in preventing offences.</p>
<h2>Terrorism and loss of livelihood</h2>
<p>Terrorist attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province have <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/71366">destroyed commercial agriculture business in the Lake Chad region</a>. The attacks have forced millions from their homes, destroying their means of subsistence.</p>
<p>The result is that material inequality and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/lake-chad-basin-crisis-rooted-hunger-poverty-and-lack-rural-development">poverty have worsened in the Lake Chad region</a>. </p>
<p>The impact on women has been particularly acute because agriculture is the only means of support for most. Women in northeastern Nigeria cultivate crops like peanuts, beans, groundnuts, maize and rice.</p>
<p>In our paper we explored the implications. We found that, due to the loss of subsistence and forced displacement, women and girls were being forced to engage in transactional sex to get by. This made them more vulnerable to sexual violence perpetrated by security personnel and aid workers. </p>
<p>We found, for example, that aid workers used their position to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sex relations in exchange for food and other supplies. We also found cases where aid workers deliberately withheld supplies to force starving women and girls to sell their bodies in exchange for food and other necessities. </p>
<p>Lastly, we found that women and girls in internally displaced persons’ camps often had to engage in transactional sex with government security agents to feel safe. Some of the interviewees brought up instances where girls and women traded their bodies for safety. State security actors exploited their vulnerability to make sexual demands. </p>
<p>Even though these women and girls were promised money, food, shelter, protection, and marriage in exchange for sex, some were raped over and over again and abandoned.</p>
<h2>The Nigerian state’s inaction</h2>
<p>Our findings show that the Nigerian state covertly tolerates sexual violence and exploitation committed by state security actors. Nigeria’s government has denied allegations that its security forces engage in sexual violence. Most of the time, the government’s initial reaction is rejection. </p>
<p>These rebuttals suggest that the government is placing a premium on maintaining established institutions, guarding the credibility of its police and military, and preserving their reputations at home and abroad. </p>
<p>It is true that the Nigerian government and security agencies don’t condone sexual violence during anti-terrorist operations. Nevertheless, their inaction suggests that sexual violence is accepted and tolerated. We conclude that this means that sexual violence is enabled and reinforced by government inaction.</p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>Women and girls are affected in many ways by sexual violence. They suffer social, cultural, psychological and physical consequences. They experience social isolation and harm to their mental health as well as trauma. </p>
<p>The Nigerian government’s apathy towards addressing the rise of sexual violence in its counter-terrorism operations and the various internally displaced persons camps has led to negative unintended consequences for its counter-terrorism initiatives. For example, local communities don’t wish to co-operate with the security agencies.</p>
<p>In addition, human rights violations by security forces during anti-terror operations have hurt Nigeria’s image abroad. One consequence is that the west has been reluctant to give the country weapons to stop terrorist groups.</p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Nigeria adopted a <a href="https://www.un.org/shestandsforpeace/content/nigeria-national-action-plan-wps-2017-2020">UN National Action Plan</a> in response to the <a href="https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/">UN Security Council Resolution 1325</a>. This required parties in a conflict to prevent violations of women’s rights, to support their participation in peace negotiations and in post-conflict reconstruction, and to protect women and girls from wartime sexual violence.</p>
<p>But the Nigerian government has not actively enforced the plan. This is particularly true in cases where state actors are the perpetrators. </p>
<p>Nigerian security institutions and humanitarian organisations need to recognise sexual violence exploitation. And they need to take action to enforce the country’s official ban on sexual violence by ensuring that perpetrators are prosecuted.</p>
<p>Food and other necessities must be provided in sufficient quantities if the government is to make a dent in the socioeconomic status of women and girls in the northeast. If it wants to keep tabs on how these food supplies are distributed, it needs to team up with reputable non-governmental organisations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Emeka Thaddues Njoku receives funding from Social Science Research Council, American Council, The Institute of International Education, American Political Science Association, American Council of Learned Societies, The British Academy & The Royal Society. </span></em></p>Sexual violence against women and girls in Nigeria’s northeastern region persists because of the Nigerian government’s lax response to cases of sexual offences.Emeka T. Njoku, British Academy Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1212862020-04-20T14:05:02Z2020-04-20T14:05:02ZPhones aren’t giving girls more power in their lives after all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326028/original/file-20200407-110267-1tg81t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women's agency is still mired within wider structures of patriarchy and chronic poverty</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Women_on_a_phone.jpg">Nebiyu.s/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade mobile phones have often been credited with the potential to improve the lives of poor people in low-income countries. Phones are seen as a tool to use in contexts like health, micro-enterprise and education. A common thread is that they should be able to improve the lives of women and girls.</p>
<p>Mobile technologies put a world of information in a woman’s hand, the reasoning goes. And with information comes the power to learn, make informed choices, connect to the broader world and earn a living. </p>
<p>GSMA, which represents mobile operators worldwide, <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/the-state-of-mobile-internet-connectivity-report-2019/">reported</a> in 2019 that by the end of 2018, there were 456 million unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa: 44% of the population. Mobile technologies and services were estimated to generate 8.6% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and support almost 3.5 million
jobs (directly and indirectly). But these estimates don’t shed much light on young women’s access to phones or the impact that phones have on their lives. And most of the academic studies of the subject have focused on adult women. </p>
<p>We wanted to know more about girls and women aged 9-25. These are the years when the direction of young lives is so often shaped by the presence or absence of opportunities to access social, economic and less tangible assets. We carried out our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2019.1622500">research</a> in a variety of settings in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. These three countries offer very diverse contexts but all feature gender inequality. South Africa ranked 113th of 159 countries on UNDP’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data">2018 gender equality index</a>, Ghana 142nd and Malawi 172nd. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/child.phones/">research</a> looked at several aspects of the way young people use phones: how usage shapes their interactions with older people; livelihoods; education; and health advice. One theme emerged strongly: gender. Interviews with girls indicated that access to phones has done little to empower them. Instead, it has often reinforced existing inequalities. </p>
<p>Better understanding of the role of mobile phones in young lives is highly pertinent to addressing <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5">Sustainable Development Goal 5</a>: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. </p>
<h2>Researching phone stories</h2>
<p>We conducted research from 2012 to 2015 in 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. They included poor, high-density urban, peri-urban and rural locations, some with services and others remote. We conducted in-depth interviews with more than 1,600 people, and surveyed 4,500 young people – all face-to-face. We also drew on our earlier research with a smaller group of children aged nine to 18 in the same sites in 2006-2010, to learn about change over time.</p>
<p>Our surveys show dramatic <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2019.1622500">expansion</a> in ownership of phones in our study sites. For example, 0.4% of girls in Malawi had a phone in the first survey but 6.2% had a phone in the follow-up survey. In South Africa, more than half of the girls surveyed had a phone in 2015, up from less than a quarter. In most but not all categories, boys had greater to access to phones than girls did.</p>
<p>Most were still basic phones in 2013/14 though internet-enabled smartphone ownership was expanding rapidly in urban sites. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328508/original/file-20200416-192709-dof3tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A phone vendor at her shop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yaounde_Cell_Phone_Vendor.jpg">FischerFotos/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Phone use among young girls was already starting to raise concerns among parents and teachers in 2006-2010. Many suspected that if a girl had a phone, it might have been received as payment for sex. This remained a concern in the second study. </p>
<p>We found that girls and boys regularly take their phone to school, whether the school allows this or not. Our data suggest that the educational benefits are mostly limited to calculator use and occasional information searches. There can be many negative impacts, though, including bullying. Both boys and girls reported negative impacts. But girls also frequently face propositioning from male teachers by phone. And widespread phone circulation of pornography (mostly by boys) makes many girls highly uncomfortable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mobile-phones-are-disrupting-teaching-and-learning-in-africa-59549">How mobile phones are disrupting teaching and learning in Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Phones are regularly promoted as tools for female entrepreneurship. In Ghana, in particular, we found young women entrepreneurs using phones, especially in urban areas. Direct employment of females in phone-related businesses is usually restricted to areas such as airtime sales, where competition is high. Better-resourced males are able to set up higher-value enterprises to sell, repair and charge phones. </p>
<p>The precariousness of many women’s businesses is also evident from comments about sacrifices required to “feed” the phone. Overall, our data suggest that while many women now perceive the phone as an essential tool for promoting work opportunities, it has not transformed their livelihoods. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/access-to-mobile-phones-wont-magically-fix-youth-unemployment-in-africa-88786">Access to mobile phones won't magically fix youth unemployment in Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Phones, romance and sexual relationships</h2>
<p>Most young people we interviewed, in all three countries, from their early teens onwards, referred to the part that phones play in romantic and sexual relationships. Having a phone is key. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am going to have a new phone tomorrow (and then) girls will easily agree to have an affair with me (14-year-old, South Africa)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Etiquettes of calling and airtime purchase come into play. Women expect to have their communication funded so that they can respond to boyfriends’ calls. But that can put them under surveillance too. Men often feel justified in controlling phone contact lists and calls.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once they buy you things they start to think that they own you. (Woman, 24 years, South Africa). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our findings point to the importance of girls’ and women’s relationships with men in shaping whether and how they use phones and to what effect. Any expansion of female autonomy, whether through a business venture, education or a health decision, can be seen to pose a threat by husbands and boyfriends who expect total control in the relationship. </p>
<p>Use of the phone as a “digital leash” to check women’s whereabouts appears to be a growing feature of many relationships and conflicts. The phone is also used as a lure. </p>
<p>When mobile phones are socially and culturally embedded in patriarchal sexual relationships, it complicates the potential for female empowerment. Phones offer both opportunities and hazards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gina Porter works for Durham University, UK. This paper is based on research conducted with Kate Hampshire, Durham University; Albert Abane, Augustine Tanle and Samuel Owusu, University of Cape Coast Ghana; Ariane de Lannoy, University of Cape Town; Alister Munthali and James Milner, University of Malawi; and Elsbeth Robson, University of Hull. We received funding for the research from the UK Economic and Social Research Council and UK DFID, Grant no. ES/J018082/1.</span></em></p>Phones sometimes serve as a ‘digital leash’ to check women’s whereabouts - a growing feature of many relationships and conflicts.Gina Porter, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283312019-12-22T23:07:14Z2019-12-22T23:07:14ZWe asked Nigerian students about transactional sex on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305219/original/file-20191204-70155-2oui7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transactional sex is linked to an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Transactional sex – the exchange of sex for money, gifts or favour – is not uncommon on <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humaff.2012.22.issue-2/s13374-012-0020-5/s13374-012-0020-5.xml">Nigerian university campuses</a>. Local <a href="https://punchng.com/explaining-sex-for-marks/">media</a> and previous <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humaff.2012.22.issue-2/s13374-012-0020-5/s13374-012-0020-5.xml">research</a> have reported that some students on Nigerian campuses engage in transactional sex. They exchange sex with men in positions of power for grades, money and gifts. These men are known as blessers, aristos, sugar daddies or sponsors. </p>
<p>The trend is of concern because it is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.7448/IAS.19.1.20992">linked</a> to an increased risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Transactional sex also increases the risk of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions and exposure to sexual and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.04.029">gender-based violence</a>.</p>
<p>Very little research has been done on why students engage in transactional sex. To fill this gap we conducted a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210349">study</a> among male and female Nigerian university students. In particular, we examined the relationship between family structure, family support and transactional sex. </p>
<p>Understanding this is important and can inform interventions to reduce transactional sex. For example, we found that lack of family support and the death of one’s mother increased the likelihood of engaging in transactional sex. Interventions could target students with specific family vulnerability.</p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>We surveyed 630 sexually active students on two Nigerian campuses between February and April 2018. </p>
<p>We used the term ‘transactional sex’ as giving or receiving money, gifts or favour in exchange for sex. We asked students in the questionnaire if they had been engaged in such sex. </p>
<p>We used a statistical model to examine the relationship between family structure, family support and transactional sex while taking into account the effect of other important factors such as age, sex, alcohol consumption and psychoactive drugs.</p>
<p>The family structure hypothesis we used was threefold:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>first, that polygamous homes could be a source of stress and instability for young adults in the household.</p></li>
<li><p>second, we thought that living with only one parent might increase vulnerability.</p></li>
<li><p>third, that a lack of family (and financial) support could affect students’ behaviour.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Family structure was measured by asking participants to describe their family type. We gave them a mutually exclusive list (single parent, nuclear family, polygamous family, and foster family) to choose from. Also, we asked participants if their fathers were alive and whether they currently lived with their fathers. Similarly, we asked if their mothers were alive and if they lived with their mothers. </p>
<p>Family support was measured in this study by asking participants to rate the support they received from their family. We provided a list of mutually exclusive responses: I receive adequate support from my family; I receive moderate support from my family; I receive insufficient support from my family; and I receive no support from my family. Participants could pick one response. The main support in question is financial support.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Of the 630 participants included in the analysis, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210349">17.9% had given and 23.8% had received money</a>, gifts or favour in exchange for sex.</p>
<p>One out of four males compared to one out of ten females had given money, gifts or favour in exchange for sex. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in the proportion of male and female students (23.7% of males versus 24% of females) who had ever received money, gifts or favour in exchange for sex. </p>
<p>Individuals from a polygamous family were about twice as likely to engage in transactional sex compared to individuals from a nuclear family. But the evidence for this link was not as strong as the contribution of alcohol and drug use in risky sexual behaviour. </p>
<p>Overall, the evidence of the relationship between family structure and transactional sex was weak. We observed that it is the number and roles of parents that make a difference in students’ outcomes rather than the structure of the family itself. </p>
<p>There was no evidence in support of our hypothesis that living in the same household as one’s father would make a difference to the behaviour in question. But there was some evidence that living with one’s mother reduced the odds of receiving money in exchange for sex. </p>
<p>Our paper lends support to the assertion that family structure and family support are protective factors against transactional sex among adolescents and young adults. The nuclear family is a more protective factor than other family types. </p>
<p>The findings of this study have important implications for sexuality studies and public health policies. </p>
<p>In Nigerian universities, little or no support is available for indigent students on campuses. Considering the broad societal implications of transactional sex on adolescents and young adults, providing funding opportunities for indigent students could be a timely intervention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Family structure and family support are protective factors against transactional sex among adolescents and young adults.Anthony Idowu Ajayi, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterMeggie Mwoka, Policy research officer, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1209432019-08-05T15:50:07Z2019-08-05T15:50:07ZSex worker rights: Hysteria, surveillance and threats to fundamental freedoms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286821/original/file-20190804-117910-7mvnsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C508%2C2048%2C1020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sex worker rights -- fought for at this red umbrella protest in Vancouver -- are under threat by 'hospitality' programs which ask civilians working in hotels to 'report' on their guests. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Doerksen </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>2:00 a.m. The phone rang, abruptly awakening me. It was the hotel night clerk calling to tell me that members of the Montréal Police Service were downstairs and wanting to search my room. When I asked why, I was told there was a report of a missing youth being held in the hotel. Knowing I couldn’t refuse without negative consequences, I reluctantly agreed. </p>
<p>This happened to one of us — Kerry Porth, sex worker rights activist, educator and scholar. Along with Genevieve Fuji Johnson — professor of political science at Simon Fraser University and co-author of this article — Kerry was in Montréal to attend the <a href="http://www.ippapublicpolicy.org/conference/icpp4-montreal-2019/10">International Conference of Public Policy</a>. Our paper on harm reduction in sex work was well received by a small but interested audience. Until this raid on Kerry’s room, never did it cross our minds that our work would attract the attention of the law. </p>
<p>In May 2019, the Montréal Police Service launched RADAR, an anti-trafficking program that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/spvm-radar-sexual-exploitation-1.5152323">enlists hotel staff and taxi drivers in identifying suspicious activity</a>. RADAR is similar to other initiatives implemented across North America. </p>
<p>For several years, industry associations such as the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association have been partnering anti-trafficking organizations like Polaris and ECPAT-USA along with police departments. These initiatives include providing hotel employees — from global hotel chains like the Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and others — <a href="http://www.orhma.com/Portals/0/Insider/2015/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Housekeeping.pdf">with lists of trafficking indicators</a>. Indicators include guests having multiple computers and phones, large amounts of cash, and lots of alcohol, condoms, lube and lingerie. Other signs include: refusing cleaning services; leaving minors in the room; infrequently leaving the room; frequently using the “Do not Disturb” sign; <a href="http://www.orhma.com/Portals/0/Insider/2015/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Front%20Desk.pdf">wearing provocative clothing and shoes; taking a lot of toiletries; asking for more towels; staying for long periods with few possessions; and renting more than one room</a>. Wearing large hats and sunglasses is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/594970e91b631b3571be12e2/t/5cd329e8a4222f20baf5378b/1557342696892/ECPAT-USA_AntiTraffickingHotelChecklist.pdf">also listed as an indicator</a>. Children’s items and <a href="https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/db/15489592738697.pdf">toys are also suspicious</a>. </p>
<p>A serious issue with these indicators is that, like claims linking an increase in trafficking to major sports events, <a href="http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WhatstheCostofaRumour.11.15.2011.pdf">they are not based on evidence</a>. They <a href="https://swanvancouver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SWAN-ADVOCACY-TOOLKIT.pdf">render suspicious entirely benign behaviour</a>, and they empower amateur agents of the state to report this behaviour to state authorities. The consequences of these programs are far-reaching.</p>
<h2>Programs impede safety and freedom</h2>
<p>These programs may make it more difficult for real victims of both sexual exploitation and sex trafficking to come forward, <a href="https://reason.com/2019/02/05/hotel-surveillance-state-sex-trafficking/">seek the help they want and receive that help</a>. Those who have power over them may find more ways of keeping them hidden from well-publicized efforts to detect them. Moreover, by funding these programs, valuable resources are diverted from addressing deeper causes of trafficking and, im/migrants who are either <a href="http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WhatstheCostofaRumour.11.15.2011.pdf">exploited or trafficked</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121435">may fear incarceration or deportation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C20%2C941%2C461&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sex worker rights – fought for at this red umbrella protest – are under threat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Doerksen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Captured by the excessively broad net of initiatives are consenting adults engaging in transactional sex. These programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121435">make sex workers reluctant to carry condoms</a>, more <a href="http://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201219126">mistrustful of law enforcement</a> and less likely to <a href="http://www.spoc.ca/ONS%20press%20release.pdf">“seek help from law enforcement even if they are experiencing violence, abuse, harassment or exploitation”</a>. These initiatives also threaten the rights and freedoms of citizens — perhaps especially those of us who are racialized. </p>
<p>Threats include those to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/airplane-mode/woman-delta-flight-says-she-was-mistaken-human-trafficking-victim-n824456">mobility rights, personal security rights and freedom of association</a>. As the raid on Kerry’s room suggests, these initiatives may also pose threats to academic freedom. </p>
<p>The incident has caused us to think more carefully about hiding from sight any research materials we may have with us when we travel. We believe it was those research materials — along with a stuffed animal, Sheepy, who accompanies Kerry on overnight trips away from home — may have been what triggered the report to the Montréal police.</p>
<h2>Gaining the trust of sex workers</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these programs threaten the very concept of citizenship. These anti-trafficking initiatives represent a shift from an ideal of citizenship in which members of a political community have a responsibility to be critical of the state and to keep a vigilant eye on its exercise of power. The ideal citizen underlying programs such as RADAR is one in which she becomes an agent of the state blindly implementing its agenda. </p>
<p>Human trafficking of any kind is a serious concern. However, concerns about sex trafficking often belie a powerful moralism that resists evidence and logic. This moralism feeds certain anti-trafficking campaigns that are more harmful than helpful, especially when those campaigns involve harnessing the surveillance powers of an archipelago of hotels, taxi companies, and airlines.</p>
<p>If we really want to combat sexual exploitation and trafficking — and we do — a critical first step is <a href="https://livingincommunity.ca/sex-work-101/">public education about the differences among sexual exploitation, sex trafficking and sex work</a>. People engage in sex work for a wide range of reasons including, for some, a lack of other employment options. Sometimes sex workers will travel across jurisdictions to work. Sex work occurring indoors — in condos or hotel rooms — is <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/13389/index.do">safer than that happening on the streets</a>. None of these facts necessarily reduce sex work to sex exploitation or trafficking. Anti-trafficking policies and programs need to be <a href="http://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201219126">directly informed by sex workers and their organizations</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.1.sect2-1701">The decriminalization of adult prostitution</a> is another crucial step to combat sexual exploitation and trafficking. Once decriminalized, prostitution can be governed by the same types of labour laws in other areas and sex workers can receive the same protections as workers in other areas. </p>
<p>Municipal governments, including police departments, need to work hard to gain the trust of sex workers and their advocacy and support organizations. These advocacy groups are among the best positioned to identify victims of either sexual exploitation or sex trafficking and to refer them to trusted programs that can enable them to exit the trade should they choose to do so. We believe that trafficking cannot be addressed without these steps, and certainly not by amateur agents of the state marking off trafficking indicator checklists.</p>
<p><em>Sex worker rights activist, educator and independent scholar Kerry Porth co-authored this article.</em> </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genevieve Fuji Johnson receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is a professor of Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University. Kerry Porth is a Sex Worker Rights Activist, Researcher, and Scholar. She works for Pivot Legal Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Porth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Citizens-watch programs designed by police to aid anti-trafficking efforts threaten the rights and safety of sex workers.Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Professor, Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1166102019-05-12T09:28:30Z2019-05-12T09:28:30ZWhat Nigerian students told us about transactional sex on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273594/original/file-20190509-183109-1dskdu7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Red Confidential/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Transactional sex among female undergraduates in Nigeria is a <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2012.22.issue-2/s13374-012-0020-5/s13374-012-0020-5.pdf">social reality</a>. The practice has been reported on regularly in the mainstream <a href="https://punchng.com/explaining-sex-for-marks/">media</a> and explored in various <a href="http://ir.library.ui.edu.ng:8080/bitstream/123456789/1021/1/%2815%29ui_art_nwokocha_transactional_2007.pdf">research papers</a>. </p>
<p>This cross generational relationship is widespread in <a href="https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Cross-generational-and-Transactional-Sexual-Relations-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-Prevalence-of-Behavior-and-Implications-for-Negotiating-Safer-Sexual-Practices.pdf">sub-Saharan Africa</a>, and across the world where sponsors are commonly known as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11388993/Universities-where-students-sign-up-to-sugar-daddy-dating-site-to-pay-fees.html">“sugar daddies”</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2012.22.issue-2/s13374-012-0020-5/s13374-012-0020-5.pdf">our study</a> on transactional sex in Nigerian universities, my colleague and I looked at the symbiotic relationship between some female Nigerian undergraduate students and <em>aristos</em> – wealthy, married or unmarried men. The students have transactional sex with the <em>aristos</em> in exchange for financial, social or educational support. </p>
<p>Because a great deal of these relationships happen undercover, there are no solid figures on the number of women involved in them. But there are many reasons that these relationships happen. It’s a practice that’s driven by economic hardship, a desire to network socially, and peer influence. </p>
<p>To understand more about these relationships <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2012.22.issue-2/s13374-012-0020-5/s13374-012-0020-5.pdf">we conducted</a> 30 interviews with female undergraduates – commonly known as “runs-girls”. </p>
<p>We found that the students engage in transactional sex for pleasure and money. Typically, wealthy students would be with an <em>aristo</em> for pleasure, while those who needed financial support did it for the money. Most of the women we spoke to viewed it as a critical survival life investment strategy and rejected the “prostitution” label. </p>
<p>Although these relationships could offer the students economic, emotional, and political support, their effects can also be negative. The students expose themselves to sexually transmitted infections, physical violence and academic setbacks, because the relationships can distract from their studies. </p>
<p>Those with sexually transmitted infections risk of spreading these to their boyfriends, while also suffering economic losses seeking treatment. </p>
<h2>Finding clients</h2>
<p><em>Aristos</em> are usually wealthy postgraduate students, lecturers, politicians, business people and military personnel. They are people with wealth and authority. </p>
<p>The students looked for these clients on and off campus, using connections and referrals. They then familiarised themselves with the potential client’s routine, aiming to eventually manufacture an encounter. </p>
<p>There’s usually a generational gap between the “runs-girls” and the <em>aristos</em>. The students often refer to their clients as “uncle”, “daddy” and, more recently, “aristo”. All of these bring connotations of the person’s expected role: to take care of the student. </p>
<p>If the students don’t have much financial support from their families, these relationships provide them with that security. Some started as a one-off “date”, for which they got a sum of money. But longer-term relationships also developed in some instances. </p>
<p>In return for sex, the women were given luxury possessions, like cars and mobile phones; investments for businesses they might start; or work placements when they finish their studies. </p>
<p>As one female student said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The type of connection I have with politicians, lecturers, and military men cannot be purchased with money. At times, when I have problem, all I do is to make a call, depending on the nature of challenges…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Nigeria, <a href="https://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/">about 23%</a> of young people are unemployed. These connections, with people of influence, may be a ticket to employment. As one “runs-girl” revealed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of my clients who happened to be a commissioner connected my senior sister to get a job at immigration even without any much stress…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Transactional sex isn’t limited to financially strapped students. We spoke to rich female students who engaged in it for sexual fulfilment. One 24 year old student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am from a rich home, my father is even a Major (in the army), and my mother a nurse, but I’m involved in campus runs because of sexual satisfaction, although nothing goes for nothing, because sex is for enjoyment. I have a guy that I help financially, and on the long run he pays me back with sex. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>In this research we identified a few challenges. </p>
<p>Some “runs-girls” accepted offers of unprotected sex for better pay. This put them at risk of catching sexually transmitted infections and, consequently, the cost of treatment. As one student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am always scared of having naked (unprotected) sex. Most times I use (a) condom because one can never know a man that has HIV/AIDS. Although sometimes some men always want naked sex and in that case, they will have to pay triple than what is earlier bargained. Part of the money realised as a runs-girl are used in revitalising the body, in which I go to the hospital once in a month to examine myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other risks are that the women could be physically harmed. This is particularly true if the clients choose not to pay an agreed amount. </p>
<p>Their education could also suffer as they may choose to engage in “runs” rather than go to class. </p>
<h2>Action needed</h2>
<p>Getting the government or even universities to take action will prove difficult because our evidence suggests that policy makers, politicians and the business class are involved, as <em>aristos</em>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, given the risks associated, something ought to be done.</p>
<p>One possible solution might be to establish part-time jobs for vulnerable students, and to institute courses about running businesses so that young women can earn money independently. </p>
<p>In addition, institutions should put together and roll out communications campaigns <a href="https://www.ui.edu.ng/content/gender-mainstreaming-office-0">that teach</a> young people about the implications of transactional sex.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oludayo Tade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In some Nigerian universities, wealthy female students engage in trasnactional sex for pleasure, while those that needed financial support did it for the money.Oludayo Tade, Researcher in criminology, victimology, electronic frauds and cybercrime, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922002018-04-05T10:07:00Z2018-04-05T10:07:00ZHow an uproar over aid and sexual exploitation ignored women’s actual experiences<p>The recent “Oxfam sex scandal” – during which some aid workers were accused of paying for sex with young women in vulnerable conditions – <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/in-depth/91833/oxfam-scandal-what-is-the-future-for-uk-foreign-aid">has focused almost exclusively</a> on the aid workers and aid organisations involved. But the perspectives and motivations of the young women who were paid for sex with money or material goods have hardly been discussed at all, and the contexts in which they live have been misrepresented and misunderstood.</p>
<p>The problem of transactional sex in areas hit by disaster, war, or extreme poverty is not strictly specific to the aid industry. Aid workers are not the only men who offer money and material goods in exchange for sex to impoverished young people – other foreigners, and also local men, are involved.</p>
<p>The focus on aid workers and their organisations has led to the mistaken belief that this problem can be solved mainly, if not exclusively, by punishing the culprits and the organisations for which they work. This thinking rests on the conflation of transactional sex with rape and sexual harassment – an issue that dates back to the United Nations (UN) “zero tolerance” <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/standards-of-conduct">policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse</a>, adopted in 2003. </p>
<p>That policy started with noble intentions. But it has <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2015/10/21/the-uns-shame-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-in-un-peacekeeping/">achieved little</a> in the way of curbing sexual exploitation by aid workers and peacekeepers. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237460031_Making_sense_of_zero_tolerance_policies_in_peacekeeping_sexual_economies">Some have argued</a> that the failure to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sex is one of the causes of this inability. The zero tolerance policy has been criticised also for framing the problem as a simple question of discipline and conduct detached from the UN’s broader human rights agenda.</p>
<h2>The women’s perspective</h2>
<p>There is a long debate among feminists on whether sex work is inherently exploitative or not. But even if we concede that it is, we need to recognise one fundamental distinction: unlike other forms of abuse, many of transactional sex’s “victims” accept and even seek out these exchanges themselves as a means of improving their often dire circumstances.</p>
<p>“Transactional sex” is a catch-all term for a <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2018/02/06/shades-of-grey-in-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/">wide continuum</a> of different relationships. At one end are relationships between adults that, even if an exchange of money and material goods take place, appear mutually beneficial; at the other end are relationships that are unambiguously damaging and exploitative. </p>
<p>The reporting on the Oxfam scandal often overlooked this distinction. Instead, the selfsame commentators who as a rule rail against the “white saviour” mentality <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/20/oxfam-abuse-scandal-haiti-colonialism">reverted to exactly the same thinking</a> by portraying poor women in conflict and disaster-affected zones as helpless victims.</p>
<p>This is not to say that the worst-case scenarios aren’t real. During my own research in post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire, I witnessed cases at the extreme abusive end of the continuum. Among them were incidents where girls aged 13 or 14 were pushed by the lack of opportunities and family support to sell sex for the equivalent of less than a dollar. Their clients were not just international personnel, but also local men. I was struck by how little support and attention the aid and peacebuilding community gives to the most vulnerable girls and women involved in selling sex, and just how far down the list of priorities they seem to sit.</p>
<p>And yet, not all these contexts are alike. Many testimonies from women involved in these types of relationships in post-conflict and post-disaster settings paint a more complex picture. According to one <a href="https://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles/10.5334/sta.gf/">survey</a> of Haitian women who reported having had sexual encounters with UN peacekeepers in exchange for gifts and money, many “experienced transactional sex to be highly beneficial”. According to the author of the report, these relationships “helped them meet daily life needs and enabled them to access resources and opportunities to improve the economic status of their household”. </p>
<p>Still, many also reported serious episodes of sexual and physical abuse. The report concludes that the individual benefits are offset by the fact that transactional sex “replicates and often magnifies the power imbalance present in male/female sexual relationships” in Haiti.</p>
<p>Others from Haiti described similar complexities. The Times ran an <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/charity-scandal-he-liked-lesbian-shows-says-teenage-lover-of-haiti-director-roland-van-hauwermeiren-oxfam-r9w5tv0l3">interview with Mikelange Gabou</a>, the only young Haitian woman who agreed to talk about her relationship with a disgraced Oxfam staff member. Gabou did not describe herself as a victim; instead, she drew a distinction between her own experience and that of “other women” whom the man has, <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2018-02-16/woman-tells-itv-news-she-began-relationship-with-orgy-loving-oxfam-ex-haiti-chief-roland-van-hauwermeiren-at-17/">in her words</a>, “done wrong”. One might argue that Gabou’s case stands at the middle of the continuum, and the case of the “other women” at the more clearly abusive end.</p>
<p>To be sure, those responsible for sexual exploitation must be punished. But whereas punishing the perpetrators of rape and sexual harassment can put an end to their abusive actions, impoverished people can simply find other men to sell to. The illusion that by simply punishing “our men” we can “save” these women is just another example of how a discourse that aims to challenge ethnocentrism actually ends up reinforcing it.</p>
<h2>How aid can help</h2>
<p>The only true solution is to transform the structural conditions of poverty, inequality and gender discrimination that push people into transactional sex in the first place. This is far more than aid can ever achieve by itself – but cutting aid, as some sections of the British right proposed in the wake of the Oxfam scandal, surely would not help. Instead, the way aid is administered must be rethought from the recipients’ point of view.</p>
<p>In post-conflict settings, the type of scenario I am most familiar with, aid agencies tend to focus on two groups: those that could disrupt the peace process, and those who can help change things for the better. Teenagers who sell sex belong to neither category. They’re also often difficult to work with; they might have substance abuse or mental health problems, making them unpredictable or even violent. But these are reasons to engage with them more, not less.</p>
<p>Even small efforts can make a difference. In Côte d'Ivoire, <a href="https://www.agi.it/blog-italia/africa/storia_di_dona_bambina_prostituta_che_sogna_di_fare_la_sarta-2082325/post/2017-08-23/">a small programme run by two Italian NGOs</a> is providing education and training to teenagers formerly involved in sex work. Programmes like this don’t just offer material support; they help their beneficiaries restore their self-respect and envisage a different life.</p>
<p>The aid industry cannot tackle these problems simply by disciplining its own workers. The international staff responsible for misconduct deserve punishment, but they don’t deserve all the attention. Attention should be given to the people who need it the most: the young women, and in some cases men, who have to make extremely difficult choices in extremely difficult circumstances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giulia Piccolino has received research funding from the European Union Research Council, Compagnia di San Paolo and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. She has been from September 2011 to June 2012 a United Nations Volunteer in charge of electoral assistance with the United Nations Operations in Côte d’Ivoire. She has no current affiliation with the United Nations or with any other relevant group. </span></em></p>It’s all too easy to miss the point about sex work in areas hit by conflict and disaster. How about listening to the people who experience it?Giulia Piccolino, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/603322016-06-05T16:35:38Z2016-06-05T16:35:38ZLessons learnt from taking sides as a sociologist in unjust times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124955/original/image-20160602-23288-yhunrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gold miners appear after being trapped underground at a mine in Carltonville, west of Johannesburg. Managing their safety has been a major issue as South Africa has among the deepest and most dangerous mines.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What role should sociologists play in situations of large-scale suffering and exploitation. Should they take sides and, if they do, on what grounds can such choices be justified?</p>
<p>I’m one with <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-GouldnerAlvinW.html">Alvin Gouldner</a> in saying that sociologists take sides on the basis of certain <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/10434739/sociologist-as-partisan-sociology-welfare-state">value commitments</a>. But when sociologists go beyond the relative comfort of the classroom and engage with organisations outside the university they <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Three-Plays-Jean-Paul-Sartre-Respectful/dp/B000NUMNES">dirty their hands</a>, as philosopher <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/sartre-ex/">Jean Paul Satre</a> famously said.</p>
<p>This is the dilemma that lies at the heart of public sociology: how to square the circle between practical engagement with outside organisations, and a commitment by the sociologist to scholarship.</p>
<p>Two examples of public sociology undertaken in the 1980s during the apartheid period in South Africa come to mind. The interventions were undertaken in consultation with the newly formed National Union of Mineworkers <a href="http://num.org.za/About-Us/History">(NUM)</a>, a union of black mineworkers struggling for recognition from deeply hostile employers and a repressive state.</p>
<p>An investigation into underground safety on the gold mines represented the promise of public sociology. The research strengthened the union and prompted important policy reform.</p>
<p>But the second intervention, a study of the potential impact of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2004869">migrant labour</a> on the spread of HIV/AIDS, highlighted the pitfalls of public sociology. It led to uncomfortable findings and tension between the researchers and the NUM.</p>
<h2>Historical background</h2>
<p>In January 1973 more than 100,000 workers unexpectedly <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1973-durban-strikes">went out on strike</a> in the coastal city of Durban, shattering a decade of industrial acquiescence. The strikes triggered a process of widening worker unrest and rapid union growth among black workers.</p>
<p>To understand and contribute to the development of this emerging social movement, a new generation of sociologists took sides and identified with the unorganised <a href="http://pdfproc.lib.msu.edu/?file=/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/transformation/tran018/tran018013.pdf">black workers</a>. One of the outcomes was the establishment of a research institute attached to the Department of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Sociology of Work Programme <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/swop/">(SWOP)</a>.</p>
<p>SWOP decided to partner with the recently formed NUM and focus research on the critical issue of health and safety in South Africa’s deep-level gold mines.</p>
<h2>Safety on gold mines</h2>
<p>The high accident rate on the gold mines is linked to <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071106-africa-mine.html">the exceptional depths</a> at which extraction of gold takes place in South Africa. In 1983, the year we began our research, 371 miners were killed by rockfalls. Between 1900 and 1985, 66,000 miners died underground and more than a million were seriously injured.</p>
<p>In September 1983 a dispute occurred at West Driefontein mine when workers refused to work under dangerous conditions and were dismissed. This triggered a request to SWOP to undertake research on safer underground mining.</p>
<p>The report – “Towards Safer Underground Gold Mining: An Investigation” – commissioned by the NUM, was completed by Dr Jean Leger in 1985. It is available in hard copy from <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/swop/">SWOP</a>. There were a number of crucial findings that demonstrated that black workers’ lives were being put at risk in white supervisors’ search for bonuses.</p>
<p>When both management and workers were invited to the policy dialogue on the report’s findings they took the event extremely seriously. The atmosphere was electric. It was the first time both sides had met each other face to face.</p>
<p>Management was visibly angry with the findings and felt its managerial prerogative was being unfairly challenged by a biased research report. The union was delighted with the event. It had forced management to engage publicly on a central issue in its recruitment campaign.</p>
<p>A campaign was launched around the slogan: “The right to refuse to work in dangerous conditions”. It was a great success. The union expanded rapidly and was at the time described as the largest in the country.</p>
<p>The research contributed in post-apartheid South Africa to an amendment to the Mine Health and Safety <a href="http://www.acts.co.za/mine-health-and-safety-act-1996/index.html">Act of 1996</a>, which allows for the right to refuse to work in dangerous conditions.</p>
<h2>Tackling HIV and AIDS</h2>
<p>The second intervention was on HIV and AIDS. A key feature of mining in South Africa is the system of migrant labour for black workers. Men come from all over southern African to work on a contract.</p>
<p>At the time most were housed in single-sex hostels. A system of casual sex and sex work developed in the townships and shack dwellings around the mines.</p>
<p>In the mid-1980s in South Africa, once one had AIDS, death was inevitable. There were only 100 cases of AIDS in the country. But we saw a potential danger as HIV, transmitted mainly through unsafe sex, could spread rapidly in the mining industry and beyond, to the rural villages where miners came from. We decided to embark on research in a gold mine in the city of Welkom in the Free State Province, at that time the centre of the gold mining industry.</p>
<p>Our research team interviewed women who operated on the outskirts of the mine and the men who frequented them. The local branch of the NUM had offered help but when our research team arrived, no-one was keen to arrange interviews. The women who lived around the mines were more cooperative.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
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<p>When officials at the head office of the NUM saw the first draft of the report they were <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2004869">deeply disturbed</a>. It <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2004869">suggested</a> that the system of migrant labour had created a market for the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS as the miners practised unprotected sex with multiple partners.</p>
<p>The report predicted an AIDs pandemic in South Africa and the region. It recommended that the NUM introduce a systematic educational programme on safe sex, provide its members with condoms, and campaign for the abolition of the migrant labour system so men could live with their partners and their families.</p>
<p>When the then NUM general secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa, first saw the report he was outraged. He demanded that we not publish it. He accused the researchers and SWOP of racism as the report, he said, was pathologising the sexuality of black men. We insisted on grounds of academic freedom that the research be published. Today <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=17464">Ramaphosa</a> is deputy president of South Africa and chairs the South African National AIDS <a href="http://sanac.org.za/">Council</a>, which drives the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country.</p>
<p>Careful negotiations took place between the NUM and SWOP over the presentation and publication of the research. We finally reached a compromise: we would moderate the language of the report and the findings would be published in an academic journal abroad but not in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Pitfalls and opportunities</h2>
<p>Reflecting on these two case studies, it is clear that the underground safety study was more successful both in terms of its impact on policy and in empowering mineworkers to challenge despotic control in the <a href="http://pdfproc.lib.msu.edu/?file=/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/transformation/tran020/tran020003.pdf">workplace</a>.</p>
<p>The HIV/AIDS study, on the other hand, was conceived by <a href="https://act.oxfam.org/canada">Oxfam Canada</a> and was not commissioned by the NUM. It became a source of conflict between the researchers and the NUM because it touched on a deeply sensitive issue within the black community.</p>
<p>We were not sufficiently sensitive to this at the time. The controversial nature of race and sexuality in a colonial context became clearer when, a decade later, President Thabo Mbeki articulated it as part of his argument that there was no relationship between <a href="http://www.health24.com/Medical/HIV-AIDS/Different-political-stances/mbeki-still-believes-his-own-aids-propaganda-20160307">HIV and AIDS</a>.</p>
<p>Gouldner emphasised public sociology’s ability to discover new information often hidden from mainstream sociology.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A feelingful commitment to the underdog’s plight enables us to do a <a href="http://lists.lib.mmu.ac.uk/items/D4CCB7AB-1ED0-9944-45DE-680BC159A9DD.html">better job as sociologists</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It also, Gouldner continued, made the suffering of the underdog “<a href="http://lists.lib.mmu.ac.uk/items/D4CCB7AB-1ED0-9944-45DE-680BC159A9DD.html">naked and visible</a>” to the public.</p>
<p>But there are also many pitfalls in the practice of public sociology. It can lead to a lack of analytical distance from the <a href="http://www.amphibiousaccounts.org/files/archivos/amphibioussociology.pdf">research subjects</a>. The greatest pitfall is the threat to the autonomy of the academic. But in taking sides and insisting on public engagement I believe we were being faithful to the values that underlie the sociological vocation.</p>
<p><em>This is a shortened, edited version of a chapter to be published in an upcoming volume on public sociology.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Webster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When sociologists, driven by their value commitments, go beyond the relative comfort of the classroom and engage with organisations outside the university, they dirty their hands.Edward Webster, Professor Emeritus, Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/581762016-05-25T12:10:28Z2016-05-25T12:10:28ZWhy sexuality education in schools needs a major overhaul<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122116/original/image-20160511-18140-1bruo3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The narrative around sexuality education is one of disease, danger and risk.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sex is dangerous and damaging. Men are predators. Women are victims. Only heterosexuality is acceptable. That’s what learners are taking away from sexuality education classes – if they’re even paying attention in the first place. These are <a href="http://contentpro.seals.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemPdfViewerPage.external?id=7866743463380547&itemId=1018868&lang=eng&file=%2Fiii%2Fcpro%2Fapp%3Fid%3D7866743463380547%26itemId%3D1018868%26lang%3Deng%26nopassword%3Dtrue%26service%3Dblob%26suite%3Ddef#locale=eng&gridView=true">the findings</a> of research about sexuality education in South African schools. </p>
<p>The findings deserve particular attention as the country’s Department of Basic Education prepares to roll out comprehensive sexuality education in schools. This forms part of the implementation of the multi-sectoral National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights <a href="http://www.dsd.gov.za/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=578&Itemid=39">Framework Strategy 2014-2019</a>. The framework, says government, is an “action guide” to address “the gaps and challenges that
adolescents are faced with to fully realise their sexual and reproductive health and rights”.</p>
<p>There’s another project related to adolescent sexuality in the works, too: the Department of Health is launching <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/05/10/Health-minister-wants-to-%E2%80%98wean-young-girls-away-from-sugar-daddies%E2%80%99">a programme</a> to decrease <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/6950">transactional sex</a>, teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence.</p>
<p>Sexuality education currently falls under the <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/CD/National%20Curriculum%20Statements%20and%20Vocational/CAPS%20FET%20_%20LIFE%20ORIENTATION%20_%20GR%2010-12%20_%20WEB_E6B3.pdf?ver=2015-01-27-154251-017">Life Orientation</a> curriculum in South African schools. Its aim is to help learners make healthy and responsible choices around issues of sexuality and relationships. </p>
<p><a href="http://contentpro.seals.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemPdfViewerPage.external?id=7866743463380547&itemId=1018868&lang=eng&file=%2Fiii%2Fcpro%2Fapp%3Fid%3D7866743463380547%26itemId%3D1018868%26lang%3Deng%26nopassword%3Dtrue%26service%3Dblob%26suite%3Ddef#locale=eng&gridView=true">Our review</a> of research conducted on sexuality education in South African schools identified five major themes that point to a need to thoroughly rethink sexuality education </p>
<h2>The five themes</h2>
<p><strong>1) Danger, damage and disease</strong></p>
<p>Sexuality education focuses chiefly on the negative consequences of young people engaging in sex. These include the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, of sexual violence and of pregnancy. Sex is characterised as something inherently risky. The positive or pleasurable aspects of sexualities don’t get much attention. Young people are told “what <em>not</em> to do” by teachers who adopt a morally authoritative stance. They instruct learners about the “correct” way to conduct themselves sexually – always in light of possible danger, disease and damage.</p>
<p><strong>2) Rigid gender categories</strong></p>
<p>Life Orientation sexuality education often reinforces a fixed gendered order that features prescribed roles that young women and men “should” embody. </p>
<p>For example, men are assumed to take the lead in sexual matters. Young women are encouraged to take responsibility for their own sexuality – while at the same time identifying themselves as “vulnerable” and “passive”. Young women are expected to police male sexuality. But they must also conform to prescribed gender practices where men’s desires and needs take priority. Boys and men are depicted as largely predatory and girls as victims of sexual predation. These contradictory gender messages unknowingly serve to undo some of the curriculum’s aims, particularly as sexual violence in the South African context is <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673602083575">intimately linked</a> with gender inequality and the upholding of certain versions of masculinity that are enshrined in power and violence.</p>
<p><strong>3) Disconnection</strong> </p>
<p>Many learners say they feel disconnected from what they’re taught in Life Orientation sexuality education. They view the content as largely irrelevant to their lives; the classes are seen as repetitive, boring, overly authoritative and teacher-centred. Young people learn more from their peers about sex than they do in class. </p>
<p><strong>4) Heteronormativity and homophobia</strong></p>
<p>Same-sex relationships are considered unnatural, immoral, ungodly and <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/genderInstitute/pdf/graduateWorkingPapers/bintaBajaha.pdf">un-African</a> in many South African schools. This means that sexual and gender diversity is hardly discussed. Teachers and school managers often hold conservative beliefs, and parents are often strongly resistant; teachers are not properly trained in how to conduct sessions about sexual and gender diversity. </p>
<p>Added to this, many Life Orientation programmes maintain heteronormative concepts of gender. These help to foster a culture of heterosexuality and further marginalise lesbians, gays and bisexuals in the schooling system. </p>
<p><strong>5) Teachers’ responses</strong></p>
<p>When it comes to sexuality education, teachers are caught between contradictory values that aren’t always easy to reconcile: national policy and curriculum, the school, personal beliefs, and social and cultural pressures that are often conservative. </p>
<p>Teachers find it challenging to create open dialogue in sexuality education while at the same time maintaining discipline. They struggle with the multiple roles they’re expected to play in these sessions – teacher, confidante, counsellor, social worker. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that teachers’ confidence in teaching sexuality rises when they’ve been doing it for a number of years, have received formal training, are used to discussing sexuality with others and are working within a supportive school environment.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>There are several ways to address these concerns so that the curriculum becomes more empowering and relevant for both learners and teachers.</p>
<p>Researchers argue that the model of stressing risk – in light of danger, disease and damage – and responsibility (to take up the “correct” path of behaviour) is limited. They point out that it doesn’t accurately represent the realities of youth sexuality, in particular the youth culture within which young people are immersed, the raced and classed environments in which they live and the diversity of sexual identities to which they ascribe. Sexuality education programmes should be designed to incorporate the positive and pleasurable aspects of sexualities in all their complexities, using young people’s preferred cultural expressions of sexuality. </p>
<p>Young people’s experiences and desires need to be taken seriously and their role within the education process appreciated. A learner-focused initiative that places the voices of young people at the centre of their sexuality education needs to be developed. </p>
<p>Sexuality education also needs to disrupt gender stereotypes – particularly those that privilege male power and desire – to move away from prescribing fixed gender roles to young learners, and to highlight fluidity and empowerment. </p>
<p>It’s crucial to undermine the heteronormativity and gendered binaries that currently exist in these programmes. One way to do this is to train teachers in the sexual and reproductive rights that underpin South Africa’s <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf">constitution</a> and much of its health legislation.</p>
<p>Teacher training more broadly is very important. Teachers must reflect deeply on their own assumptions about sexualities and gender. They need better support and spaces in which to debrief. It’s also important that they know about the protocols when dealing with reports of sexual violence or other sexuality-related difficulties.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: Jonathan Glover, a Master’s student in Clinical Psychology at Rhodes University, co-wrote the policy brief on which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catriona Macleod receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the Department of Science & Technology for the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction SARChI Chair. She is a member of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition.</span></em></p>The messages that adolescents receive from sexuality education classes are frequently negative. It’s time for the curriculum to become more empowering for learners and teachers.Catriona Macleod, Professor of Psychology, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557242016-03-10T04:41:24Z2016-03-10T04:41:24ZEngaging with communities can help tackle poverty linked health problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114461/original/image-20160309-13709-11og5uj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is an urgent need to generate robust evidence that shows how the social determinants of health influence people’s abilities to protect themselves against health risks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Communities can provide health authorities with essential information on how people perceive and experience health and risks, and how people engage with health systems in their areas. They can explain why people fail to use antiretrovirals despite their availability, or why domestic violence remains unreported. </p>
<p>More generally, asking communities about their health problems can help explain how social situations shape exposure to risk, which in turn determines health. This is information that is not available from sources such as a country’s vital registration system, which records births and deaths.</p>
<p>Health planning needs to take community views into account if it is to be more responsive to the situation of patients in a specific area, and towards uncovering the root causes of many common conditions.</p>
<h2>Looking beyond statistics</h2>
<p>South Africa’s vital registration system provides information on births, deaths and the medical cause of death. But such data doesn’t provide health authorities with insight into the socioeconomic context in which these deaths occur, or other contributing factors.</p>
<p>There is an urgent need to generate robust evidence that shows how the social determinants of health – discrimination, poor housing, unemployment and lack of education – influence people’s abilities to protect themselves against health risks. By examining these issues, the health of marginalised groups can be more accurately represented and tackled.</p>
<p>We developed a community-based study in South Africa to discover local knowledge on two causes of death: AIDS-related deaths and deaths due to violent assault. Our <a href="http://jogh.org/pdfviewer.aspx?pdf=documents%2Fissue201601%2Fjogh-06-010406.pdf">study</a> was published in the <a href="http://www.jogh.org/">Journal of Global Health</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1405012">Global statistics</a> reflect that South Africa accounts for 17% of the world’s HIV burden, although it only constitutes 0.7% of the world’s population. The country has the world’s <a href="http://www.intmedpress.com/serveFile.cfm?sUID=eb5d9fc6-3267-4737-ac8c-7d11b0b94164">largest antiretroviral</a> initiative covering more than 2.5 million people. The country’s disease burden is skewed towards vulnerable populations, especially the country’s <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/4565/SABSSM%20IV%20LEO%20final.pdf">black population</a>. </p>
<p>Social and structural drivers contribute to HIV/AIDS being a critical <a href="http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-sub-saharan-africa.htm">public health challenge</a>. These include mobile populations, over-crowded settlements and exploitative migrant labour practices.</p>
<h2>Working with local communities</h2>
<p>In our study, three community groups were convened in the Mpumalanga province, where an established <a href="http://www.agincourt.co.za/">longitudinal health surveillance site</a> exists. A series of meetings was held with groups to identify and define the causes, treatments and problems around HIV/AIDS and violent assault. </p>
<p>The groups revealed the connections between social and health systems issues, and deaths due to HIV/AIDS and violence. These related to issues like the use of traditional medicine, alcohol and substance abuse, unstable relationships and debt. </p>
<p>We found that in some communities in Mpumalanga, financial dependence played a significant role, guiding women’s sexual relationships and determining how they dealt with HIV/AIDS and domestic violence.</p>
<p>Our study found that the need for financial security: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>stopped women from reporting domestic violence;</p></li>
<li><p>encouraged young, poor women to trade sex for money; and</p></li>
<li><p>encouraged women to have unsafe sex to avoid losing their partners. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Several participants reported that risky sexual behaviour was common. Young people would trade sex for money for immediate financial gain at the expense of their longer-term health.</p>
<p>Many women were in relationships for financial security and this constrained their ability to practice safe sex. They would not suggest using condoms as this would make their partners suspicious of their fidelity. This would threaten their relationships with partners who supported them socially and financially.</p>
<p>There were also serious problems in clinics across communities when it came to confidentiality and sensitivity. The disclosure of people’s HIV statuses – and the stigma surrounding the disease – affected their willingness to seek treatment. This made it difficult to treat and report HIV.</p>
<p>A similar pattern played out in cases of violent assault. Women would rather resort to home-based therapies to treat their wounds and hide assaults from authorities. In this way they would not compromise their household stability and income. But such actions could have fatal consequences, as participants reported that some women were beaten to death.</p>
<h2>Using local knowledge</h2>
<p>Although these findings are not new, they confirm the important role that communities can play by providing data when they are routinely consulted as part of data collection in health and socio-demographic surveillance sites. </p>
<p>The research was based on the premises that health inequalities are socially constructed and determined. Engaging with people who are directly affected by these issues gives researchers and policymakers important knowledge for policy and planning. Ultimately, it improves the ownership – and management – of <a href="http://www.equinetafrica.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/PAR%20Methods%20Reader2014%20for%20web.pdf">health problems</a>. </p>
<p>Further work is underway where community perspectives are being used to begin a dialogue with health planners and policy makers. The objective is to bring together researchers, communities and health authorities to connect robust evidence with the means for remedial action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucia D'Ambruoso receives funding from DFID/MRC/Wellcome Trust/ESRC Health Systems Research Initiative (MR/N005597/1) and is affiliated to the Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, which is supported by FORTE: Swedish Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant No. 2006–1512). The Agincourt HDSS is supported by the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South African Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, UK (Grants 058893/Z/99/A; 069683/Z/02/Z; 085477/Z/08/Z; 085477/B/08/Z).</span></em></p>Interacting with communities can provide health planners with critical information that can help them solve health challenges in specific areas.Lucia D'Ambruoso, Lecturer in Global Health, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/447192015-07-17T04:33:38Z2015-07-17T04:33:38ZWhat’s driving young people to have transactional sex in Malawi’s slums<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88533/original/image-20150715-26277-13f3yvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poverty is rife in Malawi, with more than 90% living on less than US$2 a day. One of the reasons young urban Malawians give for engaging in transactional sex is to get food.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Transactional sex, or the exchange of sex for money or other material goods, is one of the drivers behind the high risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies among young women living in urban slums of Malawi.</p>
<p>The drivers that push young men and women to engage in <a href="http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnada925.pdf">transactional sex</a> have been widely <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953607002328">studied</a>. The findings suggest that as a result of the economic stress associated with earning low wages and widespread youth unemployment, young women are inclined to use sex to generate income for their basic needs. </p>
<p>Although these studies provide useful insights on transactional sex, relatively little is known about transactional sex from the perspective of young women and men living in urban slums.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2015.1014393#abstract">study</a> is one of the first to look at how young men and young women understand the structural factors that promote transactional sex among their peers. It explored how material deprivation and a desire for fashionable goods may lead to decisions to engage in transactional sex.</p>
<h2>Malawi’s HIV landscape</h2>
<p>Malawi is a low-income country, with 91% of its 16 million people living on less than <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2015/07/Global-Middle-Class-Report_FINAL_7-8-15.pdf">US$2 per day</a>. According to the most recent <a href="http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/en/dataanalysis/knowyourresponse/countryprogressreports/2014countries/MWI_narrative_report_2014.pdf">statistics</a>, HIV prevalence peaked in 1999 at 16.4% and declined steadily to 10.6% in 2010. HIV prevalence was higher among females. Although there has not been any national representative survey since 2010 to estimate HIV prevalence, last year it was estimated that 1.1 million Malawians are living with HIV. </p>
<p>The national figure masks significant rural-urban differences. Urban prevalence, at 17.4%, is nearly double that of rural areas, which sits at 9%. One-fifth of the country’s population is classified as urban.</p>
<p>Urbanisation in Malawi is linked to concentrations of poverty – about 65% of the urban population live in urban slums. Young people living in these slums are considered an at-risk population for STIs, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy.</p>
<p>The study used data from five focus group discussions and 12 in-depth interviews undertaken with a total of 60 young men and young women between the ages of 18 and 23 years living in two urban slums of Blantyre, the country’s capital. The study was conducted over a six month period from December 2012 to May 2013.</p>
<h2>Reasons for engaging in transactional sex</h2>
<p>The young people’s narratives suggested that acute economic pressure, lack of housing, and food insecurity combined with a desire for fashion influenced their decisions to engage in transactional sex.</p>
<p>Describing how the lack of housing may influence young women to engage in transactional sex, a 22-year old young woman whom we will call Nasiyato said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When a girl lacks housing and she wants to find a place to sleep, or she does not have rent, she is mostly found in a bar as she does not have a place to live. She will have sex with a guy [in order to have a roof over her head for the night] and then does the same thing the next day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As narrated by Naje (not her real name), lack of housing was also perceived to motivate young men’s decisions to engage in transactional sex with older women. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Young men here sometimes sleep with older women, just because they want to stay [and sleep] at a decent place. Several young men get STIs in the process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Food insecurity was another reason given for engaging in transactional sex. It gave them a “visa” for eating on that particular day.</p>
<p>Nagama, a 19-year-old mother of two children, explained that the need to alleviate her family’s health needs routinely resulted in her engaging in transactional sex. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It usually happens when my child is very sick and I have no means to go to (a private) clinic and there is no money. Something tells me: Why am I rejecting the men? After all my child will be better … When my mother or my child is sick you ask him to help. Just know that you will have sex. Otherwise, next time he will refuse to help you. And it goes on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although material deprivation was cited as an important reason for young people to engage in transactional sex, the young men and women also spoke of sex as a means to meet their aspirations and desires for fashionable goods. </p>
<p>Selina, a 20-year-old female who was unmarried said “everything was fashion nowadays”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I get a skin (skinny) jean, others want to have theirs as well and will accept any man for sex, be [he] older, to get money for a skin jean.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Young men also reported that they exploited young women’s desire for fashionable goods to lure them into having sex.</p>
<h2>The implications</h2>
<p>Our research demonstrates that material deprivation and consumerism may be important factors in the types of sexual relationships that young people have.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that a new generation of structural interventions addressing the unique needs of vulnerable groups of young people, particularly those in urban slums, should be considered to reduce sexual and reproductive health risks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mphatso Kamndaya receives funding from The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Kabiru's writing time was supported by UK aid from the UK government for the Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy (STEP UP) Research Programme Consortium; and through general support grants to the African Population and Health Research Center from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.</span></em></p>Material deprivation and young people desiring the latest fashion trends are motivating the transactional sex relationships in Malawi’s urban slums.Mphatso Kamndaya, PhD student at the School of Public Health, University of MalawiCaroline W. Kabiru, Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.