HIV/AIDS
HIV prevention and response for children and adolescents
Challenge
UNICEF will advocate for HIV prevention among adolescents to take the forefront of the national HIV response through multisectoral partnerships and advocacy for multisectoral interventions required to achieve HIV prevention. UNICEF will also promote the meaningful participation of adolescents and youth by empowering them to voice their views. To this end, UNICEF will partner with service providers and local and national authorities to create the physical and virtual platforms required for such participation.
Solution
To strengthen the national system with the aim to reduce adolescents’ and young people’s vulnerability to HIV, UNICEF will focus on: (a) high-level strategic, evidence-based advocacy, resource mobilization and leveraging; (b) strengthening the education system as a platform for HIV prevention, including supporting the guidance and counselling life-skills education programme (inclusive of comprehensive sexuality education, health promotion, gender and HIV and AIDS) of the Ministry of Education and Training; (c) integrating HIV into adolescent health and education and other services, including the prevention of early and unwanted pregnancy; and (d) ensuring the meaningful participation of adolescents and youths.
UNICEF will support increasing the emergency preparedness of schools, including during pandemics, including strengthening distance-learning programmes and improving protection systems and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools. This will be accomplished in collaboration with government and civil society partners to enable communities and systems to be more resilient to shocks, while ensuring that services for adolescents and youths living with HIV are not interrupted during emergencies.
The main partners of this programme are government ministries, CSOs, bilateral and multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the European Union, Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as well as academic and research organizations, the media and the private sector.