Organizations Making a Difference
In a World of 7 Billion

Italian Association for Women in Develop

AIDOS, Associazione italiana donne per lo sviluppo, is a non governmental, non profit organization, established in Rome in December 1981. It began its activities in developing countries in 1983. The organisation is registered with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission. It has special consultative status with ECOSOC and has been working with several UN agencies and Funds (FAO, IFAD, ILO, INSTRAW, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UN WOMEN) and the World Bank. SINCE 1997 AIDOS has published and launched the Italian Edition of the UNFPA State of the World Population Report.

In developing countries AIDOS always works with partner organisations to which it gives financial, technical and organisational assistance, based on a need assessment. AIDOS concentrates its activities in four areas of intervention, where the experience of the Italian women’s movement has been most successful and for which it can rely on a pool of consultants/experts. These areas are: a) women’s rights, as an integral and necessary part of the development process (creation of documentation/information centres on women’s rights, programs against gender-based violence (GBV), programs against female genital mutilation/cutting - FGM/C); b) sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH&R) (establishment of sexual and reproductive health counselling centres (SRHCC) for women and adolescent girls and upgrading of Mother and Child Health (MCH) and Family Planning (FP) centres into community based centres, with an integrated, holistic approach to SRH; c) economic empowerment of women (establishment of business service centres to promote women’s micro/small enterprises); d) the education of girls, through a scholarship fund, financed by private individuals and corporations, for helping Indian and Afghani girls to attend good level secondary schools and universities.
At present, AIDOS is active in the following countries: Tanzania (technical assistance to a World Bank project for the creation of a Virtual business incubator in Dar Es Salaam), Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Gambia, Mali, and Burkina Faso (coordination of the STREAM network for the abandonment of FGM/C and a project for the training of local radio journalists on an innovative methodology for doing audio-documentaries), Burkina Faso (a Centre for the wellbeing of women and the prevention of FGM/C, a community sensitization project on sexual and reproductive health and rights, a project on women’s economic empowerment and environment sensitization); India (a project aiming at fostering girls' education in a slum of Calcutta, including an internet point and a safe space for girls left behind); Nepal (a Community based SRHCC in Kirtipur, a program to prevent GBV and a Business Service Centre for the creation of women’s enterprises); Palestine (2 women's SRHCC in the Gaza Strip, in the Refugee camps of Jabalia and El Burej); Jordan (a family SRHCC in Amman and a Village Business Incubator in Umm Qais); Syria (a Village Business Incubator in Lattakia Governorate and a Reproductive health counselling centre in Damascus); Venezuela (a SRHCC for women in Barquisimeto and a project against GBV); Europe (a campaign on global health and a campaign to end FGM, in collaboration with European partners).

In Italy AIDOS is involved in advocacy work and information activities on gender relations and women’s rights in developing countries, sexual and reproductive health and rights, FGM/C, global health and population; the organisation of conferences and meetings; publication and diffusion of a monthly magazine “AIDOSnews”, its institutional web site www.aidos.it and its social network profiles. The organisation runs a very well organised documentation centre on the issues of its interest and work. AIDOS also conducts research, publishes documents and advocacy materials and tools, produces gender training manuals, carries out gender training in various disciplines for several Italian and international agencies, and runs a portal on FGM/C, www.stopfgmc.org .