"Why you?” “Why this job?” – these are the questions which sexual service providers (SSP) are most commonly asked by male clients; it is as though the man, after being sexually serviced, cannot quite believe that a young woman like this could be doing sex work. The questions suppose that there are other choices open to these women other than sex work, and arguably, they imply at the same time that only certain types of woman do this work as it must be degrading to do so. This study attempts to address these presumptions and allows the reader to hear as it were, the answers (for there are many) to these questions. This study met 101 women from 12 different ethnicities, from 16 provinces in Laos and with 101 different experiences of life to relate.

Given that the spread of HIV throughout a community or a country is entirely contingent on human behaviour, we must acknowledge that public health interventions designed to prevent HIV transmission need to take account of the sexual practices of the relevant population. A more comprehensive approach would also consider other behaviours related to the spread of HIV - for example, behaviours around intravenous drug use and blood transfusions. The patterns of human sexuality within a population are generally considered to be culturally specific1; as such, we need to evaluate societies individually if we wish to introduce public health measures for sexually transmitted infections (STI) that have both local relevance and local acceptance.

Violence against female sex workers (FSWs) can impede HIV prevention efforts and contravenes their human rights. We developed a multi-layered violence intervention targeting policy makers, secondary stakeholders (police, lawyers, media), and primary stakeholders (FSWs), as part of wider HIV prevention programming. This study examined if violence against FSWs is associated with reduced condom use and increased STI/HIV risk, and if addressing violence against FSWs within a large-scale HIV prevention program can reduce levels of violence against them. FSWs were randomly selected to participate in polling booth surveys. 

Female sex workers (FSWs) are a population sub-group most affected by the HIV epidemic in India and elsewhere. Despite research and programmatic attention to FSWs, little is known regarding sex workers’ reproductive health and HIV risk in relation to their experiences of violence. This paper therefore aims to understand the linkages between violence and the reproductive health and HIV risks among a group of mobile FSWs in India. Data are drawn from a cross-sectional behavioural survey conducted in 22 districts from four high HIV prevalence states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu) in India between September 2007 and July 2008. The survey sample included 5,498 FSWs who had moved to at least two different places for sex work in the past two years, and are classified as mobile FSWs in the current study.

To increase the momentum and effectiveness of the HIV response in Asia and the Pacific, UNFPA, UNAIDS and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) joined hands to organize, in collaboration with governments, UNAIDS cosponsors, national and local sex worker organizations, and civil society organizations, the first Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work in October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand. This Regional Consultation, which was the result of an extensive and participatory process spanning over a year, brought together some 140 participants from eight countries in the region as well as selected national, regional and global resource persons that have experience or influence in the area of HIV and sex work. These resource persons included representatives from regional community networks, sex worker organizations, NGOs, researchers, government organizations, and United Nations (UN) agencies. Country teams comprising representatives from national AIDS authorities, Ministries of Health, Ministries of Justice or police, sex worker communities and the UN system participated from Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand.