U.S. President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief Launches New Initiative for Young Women
Confronting Girls’ Vulnerability is Focus of Accelerated Efforts
October 29, 2007
Washington, DC -- Reaching high-risk, adolescent girls with HIV/AIDS prevention messages and services can prove challenging, particularly if those girls have dropped out of school, are not living with family, or are sexually involved with older men. Recognizing this critical gender issue, the U.S. Government, through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR/Emergency Plan), has incorporated responses to the special needs of young women and girls across its prevention, treatment and care programs. Now through an expanded effort to improve program approaches in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique, the Emergency Plan announces the $5.7 million award of the Young Women’s Initiative: Confronting Girls’ Vulnerability to Prevent HIV. This Initiative is one of three special gender programs overseen by the PEPFAR Gender Technical Working Group.
The number of women and girls living with HIV continues to grow rapidly. In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 58 percent of all people living with HIV are female. In some countries, girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have three to six times higher HIV prevalence than among boys their age.
To prevent HIV infection among 13- to 19-year-old girls, the Young Women’s Initiative will build upon existing Emergency Plan programs, enhancing the ability to provide comprehensive HIV services for adolescent girls. The Initiative will include HIV prevention education, linkages to health care, economic strengthening, decision-making skills-building, and will address community norms and practices that contribute to girls’ vulnerability. With a strong focus on sustainability, the Initiative will build partnerships with local organizations in host countries, and will evaluate the potential for expansion and replication of successful programs across other PEPFAR countries.
The Initiative will be implemented through the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs in collaboration with Macro International, funded through a USAID mechanism that supports evaluation and research to combat HIV/AIDS.
The Young Women’s Initiative supports the five high-priority gender strategies specified in the Emergency Plan’s authorizing legislation: increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS activities and services; reducing violence and coercion; addressing male norms and behaviors; increasing women’s legal protection; and increasing women’s access to income and productive resources.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the largest global health initiative directed at a single disease that any nation has ever undertaken. For more information about PEPFAR, please visit http://www.pepfar.gov.
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