UNICEF

The West and Central Africa Catch-up Plan provides a framework for political advocacy and accelerated action for countries to adapt and scale up effective approaches and innovations that will reduce inequity in access to HIV treatment. Twelve countries have adapted this regional initiative to their national contexts and developed country catch-up plans, with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and UNICEF.

At the 19th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), country representatives and partners took part in a meeting convened by UNICEF and UNAIDS to reflect on the shortfalls within West and Central Africa country catch-up plans and to agree on ways to sharpen acceleration strategies and interventions that will increase access to paediatric ART.

The meeting at ICASA had three high-level strategic objectives:

1. Call greater attention to the gap in paediatric HIV testing, including EID, and paediatric treatment within the West and Central African country catch-up plans
2. Define the priority actions for children in country catch-up plans in 2018, with a focus on: (a) expanding access to paediatric HIV testing through improved EID and rapid testing at other entry points; (b) improving immediate linkages to care and treatment; and (c) task-shifting to enable nurses within maternal, neonatal and child health facilities to treat children
3. Galvanize partnerships in support of country catch-up plans

More information can be found in this meeting report. 

This presentation from IAS 2016 highlights a promising practice to improve retention of HIV-exposed infants (HEI) in the postnatal care continuum. The pilot integrated infant defaulter tracing into the Malawi's Option B+ programme. Description of the intervention and initial results are included here.

This poster presented at ICASA 2017 highlights a promising intervention to improve client retention in HIV programmes. Beginning in 2015 in Malawi, a collaboration between the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and UNC-Project Malawi introduced a community-based Expert Client (EC) intervention with a particular focus on HIV-exposed infants and mothers enrolled in the national PMTCT programme.

This promising practice reviews the rationalization process and a coordination and planning workshop conducted by OHTA and Ministry of Health representatives for partners working on HIV prevention and PMTCT within certain health zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Outcomes of the programme, key lessons learned and considerations for scale up are included in this report. 

UNICEF Learning Collaborative,Summary of Selected Research Articles
January - March 2018

Key Considerations for Introducing New HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostic Technologies in National Health Systems, and the HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostics Toolkit

Adolescents living with HIV have unique needs, and retention in care can be especially challenging for this population. Adolescent “teen clubs” can provide a source of social support that helps improve retention and adherence. HIV prevention among adolescents also remains challenging because there are multiple factors that can place adolescents at risk. Risk perception, especially among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW),remains low despite high levels of general knowledge about HIV. Further efforts are needed to support adolescents, especially AGYW, to understand and appreciate their own risk and to identify the most appropriate prevention strategies to protect themselves from acquiring HIV.

Towards an AIDS-free generation in West and Central Africa

The Step Up The Pace Report takes stock of the progress and shortfalls in the HIV response in the region, offers an analysis of the challenges that continue to slow progress, and outlines several strategic directions that can accelerate the pace of progress towards the targets deined in the ‘Three Frees’ framework for ending AIDS among children, adolescents and young women by 2020.

Towards an end to AIDS in children, adolescents and young women.

This case study is part of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) ALL IN Initiative on Kenya's revision of tools/systems for disaggregation to strengthen adolescent strategic information.