Community engagement

The report outlines the progress and achievements in the triple elimination of vertical transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) over the last two decades. The data mentorship programme aims to strengthen national health management information systems, improve data quality, and build the analytical skills of government staff working towards elimination. It employs a unique partnership model with the private sector, academia, and government officials, focusing on capacity building through virtual and in-person mentoring, online learning platforms, and workshops. The programme has shown early successes, with mentees from various countries implementing operational plans to improve data quality and analysis in their respective countries.

Empowered mentees are taking up leadership roles that directly support national programmes and 'Path to Elimination' validation processes. The geographical expansion of the programme and the continuous exposure of mentees to technical learning opportunities will further enhance each country’s preparedness towards the 'Path to Elimination' and validation. The design, approach and delivery of this programme can be used as a blueprint for building national and regional capacity, skills building, and mentorship. While this particular data mentorship programme focuses on vertical transmission and the Path to Elimination, the principles of data quality, data sources, collection and reporting, data visualisations, and data use remain consistent across healthcare programmes and can be applied more broadly to build data use capacity in maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and sexual and reproductive health.

This regional report aims to strengthen risk-informed programming and facilitate scale up of simple and effective tools to identify and reach those adolescent girls and young women who are most in need of services and support. All the available tools included in the review are linked in the annexes and included in UNICEF's AGYW Programming and Implementation Repository. 

Adolescents in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) are key to achieving the global goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. ESA is home to 1.74 million adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV), representing 60 per cent of this population globally. In 12 ESA countries, AIDS is the leading cause of adolescent mortality. While there is an increasing focus on adolescents, the pace of progress remains slow, especially when compared with the growing needs of ALHIV.

It is time to deliver programmes at scale to address the needs of ALHIV, accelerating evidence of interventions producing results or showing significant promise for scale. This document examines and consolidates the current experiences of ALHIV programming in the region to support further implementation and scale-up of evidence-driven models. The findings serve as a call to action and the key considerations as a guide for governments and funding and implementing partners in scaling up service delivery to ALHIV.

This guide developed by Pediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA) draws on lessons learned on integrating peer support strategies across several programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. It has been designed as an informative resource for the integration of peer support into HIV models of care for adolescents and young people in facility- and community-based settings. This toolkit is aimed primarily at health providers, specifically health facility managers and organizations engagement peer support programmes to strengthen health care./p>

In partnership with the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF has supported the governments of Botswana and Lesotho to implement targeted programmes for adolescent girls and young women. In Lesotho, a national multi-sectoral referral framework is strengthening community-facility linkages and is catalyzing increased access to HIV/SRH services by guiding adolescent and young people to appropriate services and care. In Botswana, a radio drama series together with peer education components is tackling tough issues adolescents are facing in love, life and relationships. Documentation of both experiences are available for download.

This publication primarily seeks to define and clarify the key elements of adolescent-friendly health services to help ensure that adolescents living with HIV receive appropriate and effective treatment, summarize existing guidance on adolescent-friendly health services and differentiated service delivery for adolescents living with HIV while showcasing best-practice case studies based on country experience in implementing these services.

This document is the result of collaborative work between the Department of HIV and Global Hepatitis Programme, WHO and the HIV/AIDS section, UNICEF.

This toolkit was developed by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) with funding from a consulting agreement with Johnson & Johnson, in support of the New Horizons Advancing Pediatric HIV Care Collaborative. 

The Disclosure of HIV Status Toolkit for Pediatric and Adolescent Populations provides general guidance on disclosure of HIV status in pediatric and adolescent HIV care. This document contains tools for use in clinical practice to build the capacity of health care workers, caregivers, and pediatric and adolescent patients themselves—in assisting with and delivering successful and informed disclosure. It is primarily targeted for use among health care workers.

Specific modules support:

• Health care workers or caregivers to disclose an HIV status to a child or adolescent.
• Horizontally-infected adolescents to disclose their status to their caregivers.
• Adolescents to disclose to their social networks, community, and romantic partners.

Find out more at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) website. 

The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition developed the Key Population Activist Toolkit on PrEP, to equip community activists with the knowledge and skills they need to demand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Community-led demand efforts can influence the success of PrEP programming, including influencing how accessible PrEP services are to the community, whether people actually choose to take PrEP, and whether these services are being offered in a way that is suited to the needs of PrEP users.

The Toolkit aims to:

• Equip community activists with the knowledge and skills that they need around PrEP, advocacy, and community mobilization so that they are able to mobilize their communities to demand PrEP
• To enable community PrEP activists to advocate with their governments and service providers to allow key populations access to PrEP services
• To ensure that these services are provided in a manner that is affordable, appropriate to their needs, and addresses access barriers.

The toolkit is intended for individuals, organizations and networks – particularly those representing key populations – wanting to:

• Learn more about PrEP
• Contribute to preventing the spread of HIV in their communities
• Gain the knowledge and skills that they need to mobilize their communities and advocate with community leaders and decision makers for access to PrEP

WHO recommends peer support, including peer counseling, for adolescents and young people living with HIV age 10-24 years (AYPLHIV). Peer support enables providers, programs and services to be more responsive, acceptable, sustainable and relevant, encouraging AYPLHIV to seek and remain engaged in care.

Peer support activities range from support groups to peer-to-peer counseling and treatment buddy programs. Generally, AYPLHIV are formally or informally engaged as peer supporters at health facilities or in communities to provide care for and promote the health and well-being of their peers. A peer supporter can be a peer, or a near-peer (someone a few years older who understands the needs of AYPLHIV). In all cases, the aim is to ensure a source of empathic support and share positive coping strategies.

Studies show that peer support can improve AYPLHIV linkage, adherence, viral suppression, retention and psychosocial well-being. Peer support models can also provide young peer supporters with opportunities for leadership development, capacity-building and youth-led advocacy, helping to combat the negative effects of self-stigma and peer pressure.

This is part of a series of 12 policy briefs by the Child Survival Working Group on scaling up key interventions for children and adolescents living with HIV. Learn more.

Adolescents and young people (AYP) (10-24 years) are being left behind in the HIV response, with high levels of new infections, and lower levels of diagnosis and treatment coverage than adults. National and local programming adapted to their specific needs is critical to ensuring their well-being and to reaching global targets to end AIDS by 2030.

AYP, including those living with HIV and from young key populations, are not just beneficiaries of programs, but are important stakeholders and agents of change. AYP leadership and partnership is an essential component of the design, delivery and evaluation of programs that affect them, leading to better decisions and policies. In accordance with principles of the greater involvement of people living with HIV, AYP have the capacity to identify approaches and solutions that best respond to their needs, making programs more effective and helping to ensure increased uptake of services and better outcomes.

This is part of a series of 12 policy briefs by the Child Survival Working Group on scaling up key interventions for children and adolescents living with HIV. Learn more.