Guidance on Strengthening Adolescent Component of National HIV Programmes

This guidance document and its accompanying tool, the Adolescent Assessment and Decision-Makers Tool (AADM), were devised to facilitate country assessments aimed at strengthening the adolescent component of national HIV programmes. The purpose of the country assessments is to: (1) support country teams in the identification of equity and performance gaps affecting adolescent HIV programming; and (2) define priority actions to improve the effectiveness of the national adolescent HIV response.

 

HIV and Young People Who Sell Sex Technical Brief

It has long been acknowledged that sex workers – female, male and transgender – are at high risk of HIV exposure, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This is due in part to a high number of sexual partners and working environment which is not conducive to sex workers’ being able to protect their health and the health of their clients, including widespread criminalisation of sex work, violence perpetrated by both state and non-state actors and extreme levels of stigma and discrimination.

HIV and Young People Who Inject Drugs Technical Brief

This brief offers a concise account of current knowledge respond to the overlapping vulnerabilities of young people concerning the HIV risk and vulnerability of young people who inject drugs or the specific legal challenges and ethical who inject drugs; the barriers and constraints they face concerns in working with children. These vulnerabilities to appropriate services; examples of programmes that require responses that may go beyond the harm-reduction programmes recognized as effective for adults.

Building Better Brains: New Frontiers in Early Childhood Development

This document discusses the following: general messages about early childhood development, programming messages, nutrition, protection,  early & lifelong learning,  health, parenting, advocacy messages, and key facts about the developing brain. The messages presented in this note were generated from a Neuroscience Symposium organized by UNICEF on April 16, 2014, where 16 leading international scientists from different fields of neuroscience presented their latest evidence on the influences of experience and environment on child brain development.

Standard Operating Procedures on Viral Load Monitoring for Health Care Workers

This document was created by ICAP’s Clinical and Training Unit with valuable input from their teams in Swaziland, Mozambique, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire. It was developed as a template document to be adapted for use in various contexts and is one component of a viral load monitoring tool-kit, to be used in conjunction with ICAP’s Viral Load Monitoring Flipchart and Enhanced Adherence Treatment Plan. This area is evolving rapidly therefore it is expected that this document will require frequent updating over time, as recommendations change, and needs to be adapted according to local guidelines and context.

PMTCT IN Humanitarian Settings

Humanitarian emergencies in countries with a high HIV disease burden can cause considerable PMTCT antiretroviral treatment (ART) interruption. The risk of drug resistance emerging is increased, efficacy of treatment compromised and the effective scale-up of lifelong ART for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV is impeded. Therefore, strategies to ensure the uninterrupted supply of antiretrovirals for PMTCT during crises are needed. This paper highlights lessons learned from PMTCT implementation in emergencies based on reported literature, key informant interviews, and recommendations made. The review focuses on delivering ART for PMTCT.

Option B+ Monitoring & Evaluation Framework: Dissemination & Country Consultation

A robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system is a key component of a strong health system. With the current WHO recommendation of lifelong ART for all pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV, outcomes (including maternal survival and final infant HIV status) require monitoring through longitudinal data systems complemented with regular cohort analyses and enhanced monitoring. Additionally, as we move toward the need for more strategic policies and programming to garner system and resource efficiencies, M&E systems need to be designed to be able to inform differences arising from age, sex, and geographic trends as well as identify weaknesses such as sub-optimal commodity supply and testing quality.

Option B+ Monitoring & Evaluation Framework: Executive Summary

In 2015, the IATT monitoring and evaluation working group (MEWG) finalized and disseminated the IATT B+ M&E Framework. One mechanism used to disseminate was to convene a 15 Country Consultation that was determined as follows: the eight 2015 priority countries (Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda & Zambia) that contributed 70% of new infections among the Global Plan countries in 2013, three countries (Malawi, Rwanda and Zimbabwe) representing best practices from the region and four countries (Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC and Namibia) who are in the process of reviewing their M&E systems for B+ roll out.