2021

Building on previous summaries, this brief summarizes the current evidence and lessons learned from the Transfer Project after more than a decade of research on cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since 2009, the Transfer Project has generated rigorous evidence on the impacts of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and has supported their expansion. It aims to provide evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfer programmes, inform the development and design of cash transfer policy and programmes, and promote learning across SSA on the design and implementation of research and evaluations on cash transfers. The Transfer Project is a collaborative network comprising UNICEF (Innocenti, Regional and Country Offices), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, national governments and researchers. 

UNICEF's 2021 World AIDS Day report provides global and regional statistical updates on children, adolescents and pregnant women. It further provides a brief history of the HIV epidemic and response for children together with a series of human interest stories that shine light on inequalities faced by children and adolescents, especially in HIV treatment and prevention services.

Flip through the 2021 World AIDS Day Spotlight Photo Report, which amplifies the voices of the most marginalized children, adolescents and young mothers along the theme of stolen childhood, lost adolescence. 

Building on research findings and effective interventions in low-and middle-income countries, this policy brief identifies key risks, including bullying and stigma, and facilitators, such as positive parenting and social support, that influence pathways between mental health and HIV outcomes for adolescents. It is part of a broader series that aims to support the translation of research into improved adolescent sexual reproductive health and HIV programming.

Good mental health and psychosocial wellbeing is especially important for adolescents during their transition to adulthood. It can support resilience and help initiate healthy behaviours that shape long-term positive health outcomes. Evidence shows that adolescents living with HIV are more likely to experience mental health challenges compared to their peers who do not have HIV. Poor mental health outcomes have been linked to low rates of adherence to life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ART) and retention in care.  Understanding risk factors and protective factors that influence mental health and ART adherence amongst adolescents is critical for effective programming. Within eastern and southern Africa, there is great momentum to identify and scale-up interventions that address mental health and improve treatment, care and support for adolescents living with HIV.

This implementation brief examines the current efforts in eastern and southern Africa to accelerate and scale up evidence-based PrEP delivery platforms for adolescent girls and young women. The brief provides current knowledge and builds on WHO guidance to provide key considerations for implementation, including driving demand and improving quality, as well as focus on wider combination prevention and integration agendas.

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) remain disproportionately affected by HIV in eastern and southern Africa, however, they face many personal, social and structural barriers to access, uptake and use of traditional HIV prevention methods. Oral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is proven to be highly effective as an additional prevention choice for reducing the risk of HIV acquisition, but the current demand for PrEP by AGYW is low with suboptimal adherence.

Within the region, there is currently great impetus to address these challenges and scale up PrEP for AGYW. A critical aspect of this is to leverage the learnings and evidence from implementation of how to improve the demand and quality of PrEP programming for this population. Improving the Quality of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Implementation for Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Eastern and Southern Africa is informed by knowledge and lessons learned emerging from a virtual thank tank and webinar convened by UNICEF together with WHO AFRO and the Global Fund, with support from the SIDA funded 2gether 4 SRHR programme, in early 2021.

Recognizing the persistent and harmful impact that COVID-19 and related lockdown measures pose for the HIV response, governments across ESA region continue to implement interventions to sustain and further advance hard won gains toward ending AIDS. One year after the release of UNICEF's Compendium of innovative approaches to HIV programming in Eastern and Southern Africa in the context of COVID-19, this new Volume II describes results achieved in the nine countries highlighted in Volume I and shares experiences from an additional eight countries. This collective work demonstrates how countries are building upon the learning and architecture of the HIV response to proactively mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic while scaling up efforts to achieve global HIV goals, resulting in stronger responses and resilient systems for both HIV and COVID-19. Many of the adaptations and innovations described have had a positive impact beyond sustaining HIV services during COVID-19 and are demonstrating exciting opportunities to build back better with more flexible and resilient systems.

AGYW Resource Guide for strengthening national responses to the crisis of HIV amoung young women and girls.