Sexual and reproductive health

GENEVA, 5 June 2017—UNAIDS mourns the sudden passing away of the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Babatunde Osotimehin. A renowned global public health leader, Dr Osotimehin was widely regarded for his work on sexual and reproductive health, as well as his work on HIV.

“Babatunde Osotimehin will be remembered for improving the lives of women and young people and promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights,” said Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director. “Young people have lost a champion today.”

As Executive Director of UNFPA, Dr Osotimehin led the organization’s efforts on HIV prevention, especially among adolescents and young adults, promoting condoms and ensuring that women and adolescent girls receive HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health services. He also led Nigeria’s AIDS response as Minister of Health and as the Director General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS.

“I have lost a brother, a valued long-time family friend,” said Mr Sidibé. “The UNAIDS family commits to carry forward the legacy of Babatunde.”

UNFPA is one of UNAIDS’ 11 Cosponsors advancing the response to HIV. 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights information, education and evidence-informed data are key to ensuring that young people know how to protect themselves from HIV and access HIV testing and treatment. This was the main message from an event—Breaking Down Barriers to Youth Empowerment—organized by the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations in Geneva and UNAIDS and held on 24 May, on the sidelines of the 70th World Health Assembly.

The event provided a platform for young people to be at the centre of the discussion, with a call to double efforts in scaling-up and ensuring adequate access to quality sexual and reproductive health and rights information.

The participants noted that access to clear, accurate and evidence-informed information and education supports the capacity of young people to protect their health, rights and dignity and to stand up to discrimination and violence. It also serves as a critical stepping stone for accelerating socioeconomic growth and progress. Yet, there are major barriers and challenges that must be addressed.

In many settings, access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information is constrained by legal and policy barriers, such as parental consent requirements for adolescents and youth to access services, including HIV testing. In countries with high levels of early and forced marriage, spousal consent requirements also put young women and girls at increased risk of HIV infection.

The participants concluded that limited access to accurate, high-quality, evidence-informed information, education and data on sexual and reproductive health and rights jeopardizes young people’s health and survival.

Ayushi Tripathi is a student at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, a city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

She explains that she comes from a family where talking about sex is taboo. “We never talk about it at home. Even seeing an advertisement about condoms is uncomfortable for my parents,” she said. But nonetheless, she was intent on attending a youth health workshop.

This week, she joined 27 other students for a three-day workshop to raise young people’s awareness of their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The training was led by the Dove Foundation, a youth-led organization based in Varanasi and supported by UNAIDS. The advocacy materials used were developed by the PACT, a global coalition of 25 youth networks working on HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

“When I was younger, I didn’t have knowledge on where to get information and access to HIV services,” Ms Tripathi said. “Until I took this workshop, I had no idea that young people in India face challenges in accessing HIV testing and services.”

Monique Long from the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network led the training, which provided youth and adolescents with the skills and information necessary to tackle the different barriers affecting their health.

“Working with this diverse group of intelligent and energetic young people reminds me of why we say youth are the future. This training also reaffirms that youth right here and right now have the capacity and the will to do amazing things to change the world,” Ms Long said.

Asia and the Pacific is the region with the largest number of young people in the world. In the region, people are starting sex at an increasingly younger age and having multiple sex partners, placing young people at higher risk of HIV.

During the training, the participants stressed how many countries are not tailoring their programmes to young people. For example, India requires people under 18 years old to have parental consent for HIV and other sexual and reproductive health services. Comprehensive sexuality education is often not taught in schools. The low levels of HIV knowledge and discrimination faced in health-care settings further exacerbate the situation.

The PACT and UNAIDS have been working with governments and other partners in advocating for the revision and reform of age of consent laws. The training provided young people with the techniques and skills needed for prioritizing advocacy issues, mapping different stakeholders, crafting key advocacy messages and lobbying.

“UNAIDS knows that the future of the HIV response lies in the hands of young people,” said Aries Valeriano, Youth Officer at the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific. “We are working hand in hand with youth organizations and community groups to break down the barriers that young people face and that keep them from staying healthy and productive.”

After completing the workshop, Ms Tripathi said she plans to start a community of advocates at her university to push for ending the age of consent laws in India. As Ms Tripathi received her completion certificate, she beamed. “The workshop helped to open my eyes on social activism,” she said. “I am so inspired and hope to really influence policies in my university and beyond.”

UNAIDS is working to ensure that the target in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS of ensuring that 90% of young people have the skills, knowledge and capacity to protect themselves from HIV and have access to sexual and reproductive health services by 2020, in order to reduce the number of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women to below 100 000 per year, is met.

“Age of consent: my body, my rights”, “Rights have no age” and “#Sex happens” were some of the creative advocacy messages that young people came up with during the pilot training on an age of consent advocacy manual that took place in Harare, Zimbabwe.

As part of the All In partnership to end adolescent AIDS, UNAIDS and the PACT, a global coalition of 25 youth-led and youth-serving organizations and networks working on HIV, developed a comprehensive advocacy manual on age of consent policies that relate to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth and adolescents. The manual seeks to provide youth advocates with the skills and information they need to respond to legal barriers, specifically age of consent laws and policies related to sex, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services.

As stated in the UNAIDS Prevention gap report, “In many settings, parental and other third-party consent requirements for access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health services remain an important barrier to their uptake. Adolescents often are reluctant to seek services that require the consent of a parent or guardian. Similarly, laws that restrict people’s access to health services—for example, by requiring third-party authorization for accessing sexual and reproductive health services or by criminalizing certain consensual sexual behaviours—exclude people from the health information and services they need”.

The piloting of the manual in Zimbabwe was facilitated by Youth Engage, a youth-led advocacy organization that brought together 25 youth advocates from diverse backgrounds.

Young people, with support from the National AIDS Council of Zimbabwe, are now mobilizing and preparing for a dialogue with parliamentarians to discuss the age of consent laws on marriage, sex and HIV testing in Zimbabwe and young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health services.

The manual will soon be piloted in India and will become a key resource for advocates to challenge legal and policy barriers that pose obstacles for young people’s access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health services all over the world.

At a high-level event held on the margins of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States of America, the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) met with partners from the private sector, civil society and multilateral organizations to discuss how to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights for young women and adolescent girls.

First ladies from some 20 African countries took part in the session, during which participants reiterated their support for the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS, which includes commitments to gender equality and reducing the disproportionate impact of the HIV epidemic among young women and adolescent girls. 

The first ladies heard from 14-year-old Hawaya from Chad, who at the age of 10 was married and faced violence from her husband on a daily basis. She escaped and found support just as Chad declared a ban on child marriages.

During the event the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, joined the proceedings in support of his wife and the agenda for young women and adolescent girls. The First Lady of Japan and Yoo Soon-taek, the wife of the United Nations Secretary-General, were also present.

The Vice-Chairman of the China–Africa Business Council, Zhang Huarong, announced a donation of US$ 100 000 for OAFLA and voiced ongoing support for the first ladies’ mission.    

In his remarks, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, underlined the significant role played by the first ladies both at the national level and internationally, reiterating their transformative powers and UNAIDS’ commitment to continue supporting their work.