Global

The report summarizes how UNICEF and its partners contributed to the global HIV and AIDS response in 2017 and reviews the impact of these accomplishments on children and the communities where they live. This is one of nine reports on the results of efforts during the past year, encompassing gender equality and humanitarian action as well as each of the seven Strategic Plan outcome areas – health, HIV and AIDS, WASH, nutrition, education, child protection and social inclusion. It complements the 2017 Executive Director Annual Report (EDAR), UNICEF’s official accountability document for the past year.

The Population Council and partners developed this toolkit to help build relevant, tailored and positive programmes for adolescent girls through the asset-building approach helps. The Building Assets Toolkit introduces policymakers and programme planners to this approach, offers resources and provides examples. Find additional content including customisable asset cards and worksheet here. 

More women are accessing antiretroviral therapy than men, transferring the benefits of their good health to their families and economies. When young women are empowered and have their rights fulfilled, HIV prevalence falls, there are fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer maternal deaths and fewer dropouts from school and more women join the workforce.

This Population Council document primarily aims to provide DREAMS country teams with practical guidance on building evidence on PrEP for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). It includes factors that influence informed choice, demand and use of PrEP by young women, key characteristics that affect client-provider interactions, and practical advice on gathering data on user, community, and provider perspectives.

This progress report presents highlights of the first year of implementation (through December 2016) of the Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free initiative, which focuses on accelerating country-level progress toward ending new HIV infections among children, identifying children and adolescents living with HIV, ensuring their right to access life-saving treatment and quality care, and stopping the cycle of new infections among adolescents and young women. See the 2016 Framework to read more about the Three Frees. 

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.

The current state of the AIDS response is not sufficient to end AIDS in children and adolescents.

The current state of the AIDS response is not sufficient to end AIDS in children and adolescents.

PATA and PACF have worked across 9 countries and strengthened 36 community-clinic collaborations through their partnership on the three-year C3 programme on collaboration between Clinics and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) to deliver services together for improved PMTCT-paediatric case finding and HIV treatment.

Together, PATA and PACF have identified how clinical-CBOs collaboration at a local level can be in transforming health responses. They developed a Clinic-Community Collaboration Toolkit and accompanying Be Connected e-learning course informed by the C3 programme’s successes and lessons learnt.

Through these new tools, they hope to continue empowering health providers as well as encouraging community-based staff and local coordinators to initiate, expand and improve upon joint activities and action plans, in a collaborative effort to strengthen their work on paediatric and adolescent HIV.