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This article considers the scientific, ethical, political, and logistical challenges faced in Africa and Asia when setting up trails for microbicides that have been developed to assist in preventing the transmission of HIV

Three research questions are addressed in this paper : 1) How does time use change during the transition to adulthood? 2) Does gender role differentiation intensify during the transition? 3) Does school attendance attenuate gender differences? The research addresses significant gaps in the literature, in particular the lack of attention to how time use is affected by school attendance. The study documents differences in time use patterns between students and non-students. Although female adolescent students still work longer hours than male adolescent students, the gender division of labour that typically develops during adolescence is greatly attenuated among students when time spent at work is measured by combining labour market work with noneconomic household work

In recent years, dowry levels have risen to previously unforeseen levels. Among Hindus in north India dowry can amount to three or four times a family's total assets. Among Muslims in Bangladesh and hindus in South India, dowry has become commonplace whereas the practice did not exist a generation ago. The institution of dowry has been widely criticised, socially maligned, and legally banned. Some recent writings suggest that dowry persists because it is 'good for the bride'. This paper explores the association between dowry and the prevalence of domestic abuse to test this bequest theory of dowry. The study finds that, contrary to the bequest theory, married females who paid dowry at marriage have a higher likelihood of reporting domestic violence compared to those who did not. In addition, respondents who paid small dowries report much higher levels of abuse than those who paid large dowries. In fact, paying no dowry is just as protective, if not more so, in terms of preventing abuse as the largest dowry payments

This paper argues the need for a new way of thinking about stigma and discrimination that acknowledges the processes that cause it and addresses them. It suggests a conceptual framework in which stigma and discrimination are seen as social processes designed to produce and reproduce inequalities and maintain social control, rather than as individual actions. It argues that under this framework there is a need for new approaches to research and for programme developments and interventions that engage societies, communities and people who experience stigma and discrimination, while also acknowledging that this needs to be accompanied by laws and policies that protect the rights of people living with HIV and those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic