Global Alliance advocacy

There has been remarkable progress in some countries in providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) to pregnant women living with HIV. By the end of 2021, 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa reached the target of 95% ART coverage in pregnant women, and Botswana had the first high prevalence African country to be validated as being on the path to eliminating vertical transmission of HIV.

At the global level, however, we are far from ending new HIV infections in children. There are HIV high burden countries and settings where progress in preventing vertical transmission has flatlined.  In addition, challenges with the quality of care persist, with poor uptake of testing, gaps in ART initiation, low retention rates and poor adherence to HIV treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown us further off track – between 2019 and 2021, ART coverage among pregnant and breastfeeding women declined in some countries.

Multilayered advocacy is key too to sustain and increase public and private sector investments.

A key tool to enhance the work of the Alliance will be robust, multilayered advocacy, at global and national levels to sustain and increase public and private sector investments, build political will, mobilize resources, help to change laws and policies that are barriers to care, sensitize communities, and promote the role of networks of PLHIV. Advocacy efforts will be important within all the structures of the Alliance and will be embedded at every stage of implementation.

For example—communications and social media engagement around the launch of the alliance, national dialogue to develop advocacy roadmaps in-country, tools for community outreach and involvement, advocacy materials for fundraising and resource mobilization etc. An important principle underpinning the advocacy work is working jointly across partners and communities. The regional hubs will also support south-south sharing of advocacy materials.