HIV-sensitive social protection
Social protection can reduce the risk of HIV infection.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that social protection can reduce the risk of HIV infection and poor treatment outcomes by addressing some of the key drivers of HIV among children, adolescents and women, such as poverty, gender inequality, and lack of access to education or ability to stay in school.
Social protection covers a range of public and private economic and social policies and programmes that aim to reduce the consequences of poverty, vulnerability and exclusion across the life course. In recent years, cash transfer programmes have received increasing attention for their potential to exert significant positive impacts on HIV through influencing the social determinants of health.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood brings significant social, health and economic risks that all contribute to elevating the risk of HIV infection. At the same time, this is one of the best points in the life cycle to intervene to break the cycle of poverty and vulnerability. Cash transfers have been found to reduce the risk of HIV infection among adolescents, particularly among girls and young women. Among the most vulnerable, cash transfers combined with complementary interventions or linkages to existing health and social services (“cash plus”) have been found to be the most effective models for reducing HIV-risk behaviour, psychosocial problems and lack of adherence to treatment in children and adolescents.
UNICEF supports various research projects that evaluate the impact of social protection and cash plus programmes on adolescents, health and well-being, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. For more information, visit UNICEF’s pages on social protection and cash plus or review the portfolio of The Transfer Project.
Key resources
HIV and social protection assessment tool
Generating evidence for policy and action on HIV and social protection to be used for a quick scan of existing social protection programmes and their sensitivity (or lack of) to the HIV response in a given country and location. Additional follow-up and research that engages the different critical actors, including HIV programme managers, social protection administrators, beneficiaries and civil society representatives, may be necessary in some contexts. The assessment provides countries and communities with tailored analysis on HIV and social protection.
Social protection: a fast-track commitment to end AIDS
How to bring to scale what works in the context of different HIV epidemics and for different populations. The UNAIDS Fast-Track approach seeks to frontload investments and reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths to fewer than 500 000 globally, and to achieve the 90–90–90 testing, treatment and viral suppression targets and the zero AIDS-related discrimination targets by 2020. Attaining these targets would put the world on course to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.
Social protection: a fast-track commitment to end AIDS
A brief on six areas where social protection can positively influence HIV-related policy and suggestions for implementing change.