Community-led responses (CLRs) are a vital pillar of the HIV response and central to achieving national and global targets, including the 30-80-60 commitments outlined in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. These guidelines provide practical, step-by-step methods for costing and budgeting community-led responses (CLRs), tailored to the unique features of CLRs. They are designed for use by community-led organizations (CLOs), their partners, national governments, policy-makers, donors, and researchers involved in planning, implementing, financing or evaluating CLRs that address HIV.

UNAIDS uses ‘cost of inaction’ as an indicator of the negative impact on the lives of people and communities of not investing resources to end AIDS. This issue is particularly significant with regard to the provision of HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for young people in eastern and southern Africa.

The cost of inaction for young people is especially significant as the impact extends through most of their life. This report explores the costs of inaction in not realising the HIV and SRHR needs of young people in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, focusing on costs related to: 1) adolescent pregnancies, 2) HIV acquisition and 3) gender-based violation.

Using a cost of inaction approach, this report calculates the annual current cost of the inadequate provision of HIV and SRHR services to young people aged 15–24 years old in the three countries. This provides a foundation for alternative policies to be costed to address these gaps and a true cost–benefit analysis to be conducted.

UNAIDS Executive Director plenary talk at the Conference on the Future of Global
Development organised by the Global Development Institute, University of Manchenster.