04 June 2025

Botswana leads the way in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV

In an historic global health milestone, Botswana has been validated as the first high HIV-burden country in the world, and the first in Africa, to reach the World Health Organization’s Gold Tier status for eliminating vertical transmission of HIV as a public health issue. This groundbreaking validation reflects more than two decades of committed…
07 May 2024

Adolescent girls are six times as likely to acquire HIV than boys in Eastern and Southern Africa, where rates of early pregnancy and gender-based violence are some of the world’s highest

In Eastern and Southern Africa, adolescent girls are being disproportionately held back by three interconnected issues: Early pregnancy, HIV, and gender-based violence. With 20 per cent of babies born to mothers below age 20, the region has some of the world’s highest rates of adolescent pregnancy [1] and remains the epicentre of the HIV crisis.…, ,, Executive Director of AYARHEP (Ambassador for Youth Reproductive Health programme) said: “Young w...
14 December 2023

Young mothers looking out for each other

Tremendous progress has been made in reversing a global AIDS epidemic which, two decades ago, seemed unstoppable. But two-thirds of the global population of adolescents living with HIV, ages 10-19, reside in Eastern and Southern Africa, so in this region, the crisis is not over yet. In fact 1,200 girls aged 10-19 ...
15 February 2023

Managing Rumours: Guidance to Country Offices

This guidance document provides suggestions on how to translate insights from social listening into rumour management activities. The document draws on the “Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Social Media Monitoring and Rumor Management Strategy to Support Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) on CO...
14 February 2023

The Adolescent Health Research and Best Practices Symposium

The first Adolescent Health Research and Best Practices Symposium was held in Zambia, under the theme, “Strengthening evidence-based programming to improve and sustain adolescent health and development.” The symposium provided a platform for learning and sharing of best practices.  Key evidence from the symposium ...
19 June 2019

HIV and AIDS

Challenge, Eastern and Southern Africa is the region carrying the largest share of the global burden of HIV and is the epicentre of the HIV epidemic. In the last decade, much progress has been made, but the gains are still fragile, and HIV continues to have tremendous impact on the lives of children, adolescents, ...