Captain of the South African cricket team and Think Wise champion Graeme Smith and a young participant take a catch at the training session organized with people living with HIV.

Sonu Kumar grips the cricket ball in his hand, takes his run up and bowls a fast ball. Reacting quickly, his opponent angles his bat and smashes the ball out of the ground for six.

But this is no ordinary cricket match. Sonu is a 14 year-old living with HIV, knocking around balls with cricketing great Graeme Smith and his colleagues from the South African team. The occasion, a special HIV awareness-raising practice session organized as part of the International Cricket Council, UNAIDS and UNICEF Think Wise campaign during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The Think Wise campaign encourages young people to learn how to prevent HIV infection and stand up against stigma and discrimination. At the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi, Graeme Smith—South African Captain and official ambassador for the Think Wise campaign— and teammates took time out of their match schedules to promote the campaign messages.

“We play sport and love cricket, like so many others in this country. By training together the cricketers are showing their support for people living with HIV and help break down discrimination we often face,” said Sonu.

In the presence of supporters and media, a group of ten young people joined the elite cricketers, mixing training with talking about HIV. They participated in drills on the field with Richard Pybus, coach of the South African cricket team. Later the young people discussed their experience living with HIV with the team, asking questions about the role of cricketers in addressing issues of HIV related stigma.

 “HIV is a very real disease and has affected people all around the world including in our country and here in India,” said Mr Smith during the practice session. “The key for us is to educate people during the tournament—to help prevent HIV and to show that people living with HIV lead normal lives. I believe this will contribute in reducing stigma,” he said.

Underlining the broad reach of cricket in India and across the world, UNAIDS Country Coordinator Charles Gilks said, “Cricket has a huge following in India and cricket stars can be very powerful agents for change. We are particularly pleased to link up with Think Wise champions as we aim for the UNAIDS’ hat-trick of zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.”

Hospital gets Sehwag treatment

In another Think Wise activity taking place in India, Think wise champion and India’s opening batsman Virender Sehwag called on cricket fans across the world to stop discrimination against people living with HIV.

Mr Sehwag made his plea after visiting the Haji Sir Ismail Sait Ghosha hospital in Bengaluru where he met people whose lives have been affected by HIV.

“People living with HIV are no different from anybody else. There needs to be more awareness of what it means to be living with HIV,” said Mr Sehwag. “As cricketers, particularly in a country like India, we are in a position to help influence attitudes and behaviour and by being involved in the Think Wise campaign hopefully I can play my part,” he said.

(L to R): Dr Toure, Coordinator for WHO’s inter-country team for West Africa, Hedia Belhadj, UNAIDS Director of Partnerships, Mr Jean Tchoffo, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, Cameroon, Dr Meskerem Grunitzky-Bekele, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for West and Central Africa, Dr Sabine Ntakirutimana, Minister of Health and the Response to HIV, Dr Marie Ahouanto, French Cooperation, Bureau des politiques de Santé et de la Protection Sociale, Dr.Manuel Rodrigues Boal, Conseiller du Ministre de la Santém, Cap Vert, Yamina Chakkar, UNAIDS regional support adviser, Macoura Oulare, UNICEF Senior HIV Specialist, Leiliane Corcher M’boa, Secrétaire Exécutive, RAP+ Afrique de l’Ouest

Stakeholders in the AIDS response across West and Central Africa met in Dakar, Senegal from 3–4 March 2011 to review progress made towards achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. The regional consultation was organized by UNAIDS in collaboration with its Cosponsors, regional civil society networks, government representatives and development partners.

Dr Modou Diagne Fada, Minister of Health and Prevention of Senegal stressed the importance of national ownership, “Leadership and national ownership of the AIDS response will accelerate our action towards achieving universal access and the Millennium Development Goals.”

Participants acknowledged that there has been progress on scaling up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in the region. Access to antiretroviral treatment has increased from 1% in 2001 to 25% in 2010. There has also been an increase in coverage of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services from 4% in 2005 to 23% in 2010. Most noticeably, the HIV incidence has dropped in ten countries and HIV prevalence has been stable in seven.

The consultation also identified existing implementation gaps in order to achieve the MDGs by 2015. One example discussed was the strong dependence on external financing for HIV and Health programmes. “Advocacy for increased sustainable financing of national AIDS programmes should be evidence based and strongly linked to countries’ development agendas in order to achieve the MDGs,” said Mr Jean Tchoffo, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance of Cameroon.

Another gap identified was the weak linkages of the HIV response with other health services. The Minister of Health from Burundi, Dr Sabine Ntakirutimana, highlighted the need for an enhanced integration with health services in order to achieve universal access and in particular the virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. “HIV should be used as an entry point to more integrated delivery of health services,” added Dr Ntakirutimana.

Political and social instability in most countries of the region, which aggravates the lack of institutional frameworks related to an effective response to HIV, was also raised by participants as a major obstacle. “In a region where more than 50% of States are either in conflict or post conflict situations it is imperative that the humanitarian response addresses the needs of people living with HIV,” said Dr Meskerem Grunitzky-Bekele, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for West and Central Africa.

Participants discussed the case of the post-electoral crisis in Ivory Coast and the ensuing instability threatening access to treatment for people living with HIV in the country. With increasing poverty levels and an HIV prevalence rate of 4.7%, the health sector in the Ivory Coast is directly affected by the current economic sanctions. Participants agreed that there is an urgent need to proactively respond to the issue, working with responsible actors to ensure access to HIV treatment is not interrupted.

According to the participants, other gaps hampering progress towards achieving universal access in the region were the inadequate allocation of resources towards the main modes of HIV transmission as well as lack of good governance and mechanisms for accountability. Stigma and discrimination and weak health systems are limiting the supply of services for HIV prevention, treatment and care.

At the end of the meeting, recommendations for enhanced national ownership to achieve universal access in the region were developed and key priorities agreed. These include: strengthening leadership; optimization of domestic and external resources; improving access to treatment; revitalization of HIV prevention; the involvement of young people as agents of change; and the promotion of human rights, gender and social equity in national AIDS plans.

Inputs from a pre-Civil Society Consultation, held on 28 February and a National Ownership Meeting on 1–2 March which also took place in Dakar were also taken into account during the consultation.

A new book publishes research that sheds fresh light on the lives of women living with HIV in African countries and their experience as recipients and givers of care.

Ahead of International Women’s Day 2011, the French national agency for AIDS and viral hepatitis research (ANRS), launched Les Femmes à l’épreuve du VIH dans les pays du Sud: genre et accès universel à la prise en charge (Women and HIV in the south: Gender and universal access to care).

It gathers the works of over 15 researchers and explores different aspects of HIV care including equality of access to care, the experience of men and women within health care systems and the significant role of women in the management of infection within the family.

While women living with HIV appear to have better access to health care and other services than men living with HIV, the analysis highlights that their specific needs and experiences, including as mothers, are not sufficiently addressed within HIV programmes.

Women also remain poorly supported in specific areas such as access to contraception and medical care for HIV-related women-specific pathologies. Also burden of care management within families affected by HIV all too often relies wholly on women.

The book also challenges the view of vulnerability traditionally ascribed to exclusively affecting women. Rather, the researchers posit, men are also subject to forms of social vulnerability that limit or delay their access to HIV testing and counselling and care.

Professor Jean-François Delfraissy (Director of the ANRS), Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, Pasteur Institute Paris) and Mr Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, have written the preface to the publication.

Published in the ANRS collection “science sociales et Sida”, the book is edited by Alice Desclaux (Aix-Marseille Paul Cézanne University, IRD UMI 233 and Centre for Research and Training in clinical management, Dakar), Philippe Msellati (IRD UMI 233, Yaoundé, Cameroon) and Khoudia Sow (Aix-Marseille Paul Cézanne University, IRD UMI 233, and Regional Centre for Research and Training in clinical management, Dakar).

The book was launched at ANRS in Dakar on 7 March, the eve of International Women’s Day 2011, during a meeting co-organized by the ANRS, UNAIDS and the IRD (the French Research Institute for Development in southern countries). Over 100 participants took part in this meeting, including researchers, representatives of international institutions, health authorities and civil society. ANRS in Cameroon and Burkina Faso also launched the book on the same day.

A version of this story was first published at UNHCR.org

Lucilda, a young mother of two, recently discovered that her husband had infected her with HIV. He recently died and the Colombian refugee finds herself alone in an area where people living with HIV are stigmatized.
Credit: UNAIDS/V. Rodas

Ten years ago, a teenager called Lucilda* ran away from her home in Colombia because she feared her mother's rage after going to a party without permission. At the age of 25 she got married and fled to Ecuador with her husband to escape the conflict in southern Colombia's Putumayo department. Her husband was violent to her and unfaithful. He has since died of an AIDS-related illness and Lucilda is struggling to raise two children alone as a refugee in Ecuador.

"He was very ill, but he didn't want to go to see a doctor. I took him and they told us what was going on. They also said that I was infected," she added. "He knew that he had AIDS, but he never told me."

Lucilda is receiving antiretroviral treatment and both her children are HIV negative. She is one of a small, but growing, number of people living with HIV in northern Ecuador's Sucumbios province and its capital, Lago Agrio, where some 20% of the population of 60,000 are Colombian refugees. At least 30 people here were known to be living with HIV as of the end of last year, double the number for 2009.

"This figure is certainly just the tip of the iceberg with regard to the number of people who are infected with HIV," said Paul Speigel, head of UNHCR's Geneva-based Public Health and HIV Section.

But the lack of openness about HIV is difficult to tackle in a conservative, male-dominated society, where those living with HIV, especially women, face stigmatization. With understanding key to preventing new infections, UNHCR and its partners are trying to counter this mindset and to spread awareness about the virus.

A special UNHCR programme to prevent HIV has been implemented by community health workers, and is helping to educate refugees and host communities in isolated areas of the jungle surrounding Lago Agrio. They also give lessons on sexual health, family planning and general health services, explaining the importance of safe sex and ensuring that people have the knowledge and freedom to keep themselves safe from HIV. Tackling gender-based violence is also a major concern in attempts to halt the spread of HIV.

Lucilda has firsthand experience of such violence. When she found out that her husband had been having sex with other women his reaction was harsh.

"I didn't want him to touch me, but he took a knife and forced me," she recalled. "I felt as if I had been raped."

The new UNAIDS strategy 2011-15, promotes zero tolerance of gender-based violence and discrimination. It recognizes that such violence is a human rights violation. It can also hamper people’s ability to adequately protect themselves from HIV infection and make healthy decisions about how, when and with whom they have sex. To successfully challenge the AIDS epidemic it is seen to be of paramount importance that Lucilda and other women live their lives free from the threat of violence.  

*Name has been changed to protect her identity

Participants of the ‘Mini Cricket World Cup’ schools tournament are presented with awards in Bangladesh

As the overs are bowled, the wickets fall and the crowds go crazy in the 2011 Cricket World Cup, host-country Bangladesh is giving the tournament an HIV spin. Through the Think Wise campaign the tournament is raising awareness among young people on HIV prevention and reducing stigma.

The Think Wise campaign, led by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in partnership with UNAIDS and UNICEF, harnesses the power of cricket to prevent HIV. Together with co- host countries—India and Sri Lanka—Bangladesh is organizing a number of “Think Wise” activities throughout the World Cup tournament that runs from 19 February – 2 April.

One such activity was the Schools Programme event where the World Cup was used as a platform to promote the sport, as well as to share information on HIV. Sixty of the country’s schools participated in the orientation which included the lively presence of “Stumpy the elephant”, the official mascot of the ICC event.

“I really appreciate this initiative! We don’t get to know this information about HIV usually and my perception about AIDS has changed,” said one of the young participants. A selection of the schools then took part in a ‘mini world cup’ cricket tournament, where HIV messages were shared with players and supporters through video, information and education materials in English and Bangla. “I’m now educated about HIV by coming here! It’s a great initiative for young people,” said one of the young men visiting the special UNAIDS booth.

The Bangladesh campaign received a high-profile boost from an announcement of the country’s team captain Sakib Al Hasan. “As Think Wise Champion, I’m happy to use my current popularity to raise awareness on AIDS,” said Mr Hasan at a press conference announcing his role. “We [cricketers] want to leave behind a legacy of social awareness of AIDS so young people will get to know more about HIV.”

“The involvement of cricketing heroes helps raise the profile among young people—and all cricketing fans,” said UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Bangladesh, Salil Panakadan. “Through the Think Wise campaign we have established important relationships with the Bangladesh Cricket Board, business partners, the media and we have sparked the interest and passion of young people. This gives us a tremendous opportunity to build on even after the last tournament over is bowled,” Dr Panakadan added.

A host of additional activities will take place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka as the tournament continues including site visits and interaction between star players and key affected communities. Cricket teams will wear red ribbons on their shirts in key matches and HIV prevention messages will be promoted at venues on all match days.

A patient receiving his daily dose of methadone at the Minsk oblast clinic centre.

Twenty-eight-year-old Slava had injected heroin for 13 years. "I always thought I could quit. Just one more injection and quit. But in the end, I realized it was not possible to recover without external help."

So he signed up at the Minsk oblast clinic centre to be part of their methadone substitution therapy programme as soon as it opened in June 2010.

According to the UNAIDS, UNODC and WHO, opioid substitution therapy (OST), with methadone or buprenorphine, is highly effective in reducing injecting behaviours that put people who use drugs at risk for HIV. Also, people using OST have shown better access and adherence to antiretroviral treatment, meaning they are living longer and healthier lives.

"I waited for this programme for a long time,” said Slava. “The most important change in my life is that, thanks to the methadone treatment, I’ve returned to my normal life and I’ve resumed my studies.”

The rehabilitation center at the Minsk clinic which serves around 40 people needs no advertising. People tell friends about their progress and advise anyone who needs help to visit the centre. “Several HIV-positive injecting drug users who were not listed anywhere came to us voluntarily and received methadone as well as antiretroviral treatment here,” said Dr Golubitsky, chief of the substitution therapy cabinet at the clinic.

The clinic also provides information on HIV prevention and drug use rehabilitation and refers people to other relevant services like family planning and physiological support as well as information about vocational studies, training and employment.

Substitution therapy with methadone was introduced in Belarus three years ago and has since expanded from one pilot clinic to a network of centres within the state’s health system. Today, over 450 people in eight cities across the country are receiving treatment on a daily basis.

The methadone programme is funded by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and its implementation is coordinated by the UN Development Programme.

The country has shifted from zero capacity to provide methadone treatment to having a pool of treatment specialists as well as an established OST treatment protocol. Also the provision of OST services has expanded to provide comprehensive range of services covering different elements of a persons’ life.

Belarus had strict preconditions to joining an OST programme– a drug user either needed to demonstrate several unsuccessful attempts to give up heroin, be living with HIV, or have another infection like hepatitis C. Today, due to the success of the OST programme that policy has changed, and access to these services has been expanded. Under a new order of the Ministry of Health, every person who wants to stop injecting drugs can enter a substitution therapy programme.

Health professionals consider the change a very positive step because it gives an alternative to people who inject drugs. By making it easier for people to access substitution programmes it will in turn decrease the high personal cost of opioid dependence to individuals, their families and society at large by reducing heroin use, associated deaths, HIV risk behaviours and criminal activity.

Injecting drug use in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the main mode of HIV transmission in the region. Drug users are the most HIV affected group in the population of Belarus with an HIV prevalence rate of 13.7%.

A wide view of the General Assembly as Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro (on screens) addresses the opening of the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). 22 February 2011. United Nations, New York.
Credit: UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz

On 28 February 2011, UNAIDS delivered a  statement on behalf of its cosponsors as well as UN Women at the 55^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The joint statement addressed the linkages between HIV, education and employment of girls and women.

The statement highlighted some of the key elements needed to reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection. These include women and girls’ access to quality formal and non-formal education; accurate HIV information and comprehensive gender-sensitive sexuality education. The promotion of women’s economic empowerment, including the protection of their property and inheritance rights; as well as equal access to employment are also included.

The UN bodies underscored how gender disparities increase the vulnerability of girls and women to HIV infection. Lack of legal rights, education and economic opportunities for women and girls limit their choices as well as their capacity to refuse sex, to negotiate safer sex or to resist sexual violence and coercion.

Women and girls are also faced with the responsibility to provide AIDS-related care to others, often missing out on education and employment opportunities for their own advancement.

The 55^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women is taking place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from Tuesday, 22 February to Friday, 4 March 2011. The priority theme of this year’s event is “Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.”

Michele Bachelet, UN Women’s Executive Director speaks during the panel discussion on "Taking the Women and Girls Centred HIV Response to the Next Level - Advancing Gender Equality" at UN Headquarters, NYC on 25 February 2011.
Credit: UNAIDS/B. Hamilton

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that 51% of the people living with HIV worldwide are female, and in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean this figure is close to 60%. HIV is now the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age.

What can and must be done to challenge this stark situation? The 55^th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), currently taking place in New York, provided a valuable forum for UNAIDS and UN Women to find answers and set strategic directions.

On 25 February a panel discussion, jointly moderated by Michele Bachelet, UN Women’s Executive Director and Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, examined how to capitalise on political commitment to accelerate HIV responses which place women and girls at their very centre. A key focus was the urgent need to increase the involvement of women and girls living with HIV in the AIDS response, to invest in them as agents of change.

Eminent panellists included, HE Thokozani Khupe, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe; HE Commissioner Bience Gawanas, the African Union’s Commissioner for Social Affairs and Anandi Yuvraj of the International Community of Women Living with HIV.  

This interactive session used the Agenda for Women and Girls [1] as a basis for the discussions and built on the conclusions from an earlier High Level Consultation on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV which took place on 24 February.

The UNAIDS Agenda for Women and Girls, launched in March 2010 at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, was developed through a highly consultative process with representatives from governments, women living with HIV, women’s groups and the United Nations family including UNIFEM (now part of UN Women). Since then 56 countries have rolled-out the Agenda with partners from these same diverse constituencies.

The Agenda has given legitimacy to women and girl-related issues, including gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health services, previously downplayed and neglected in national HIV platforms. The panel emphasized the fact that the call to action has already prompted many countries to implement strategic interventions, such ’know your rights/know your laws’ programmes.

Participants also explored exactly how the newly established organization UN Women presents a major opportunity to promote greater gender equality and empower women and girls to make free and informed decisions about their lives and their health. 

[1] UNAIDS Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women and Girls, Gender Equality and HIV

Credit: UNICEF

Investing now in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents aged 10 to 19[i]  can break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequity, says UNICEF in its flagship 2011 State of the World’s Children report, called ‘Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity’.

The publication, launched on 25 February, argues that although greater investment over the last two decades has lead to enormous gains for younger children, as shown by the 33% drop in the global under-five mortality rate[ii], fewer gains have been made among older adolescents who are at a critical crossroads in their lives. Many have benefited from higher child survival rates, primary school attendance and access to safe water but all these gains are at risk if investment in their future does not continue as they grow up.

“Adolescence is a pivot point – an opportunity to consolidate the gains we have made in early childhood or risk seeing those gains wiped out,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s Executive Director. “We need to focus more attention now on reaching adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, investing in education, health and other measures to engage them in the process of improving their own lives.”

Insufficient attention to the general needs of young people carries with it social, economic, political and health consequences. Governments, international policy makers and civil society must meaningfully invest in adolescents to benefit society as a whole, the report argues. 

Education provides a telling example; more than seventy million young people of lower secondary age are currently out of school[iii]. Nearly 40% of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are in this position[iv]. On a global level girls still lag behind boys in secondary school attendance. Without education, adolescents are more likely to be poor and marginalized. They also find it more difficult to develop the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the risks of exploitation, abuse and violence which, the report says, are highest during the second decade of life. When adolescents are reached successfully, they can be at the forefront of changes that benefit themselves and society as a whole.

Other challenges facing adolescents are many and varied. On the economic front, in 2009 81 million of the world’s young people were unemployed[v] and the current global financial crisis is having a devastating effect. Around a third of young girls in the developing world (excluding China) marry before the age of 18 and in a few countries nearly 30% of girls under 15 have husbands[vi]. This can lead to a negative cycle of premature child-bearing and high rates of maternal mortality.

To enable adolescents and children to deal effectively with myriad obstacles, specific investments are needed, the report contends. These include:   

• Mainstreaming child welfare
• Investing in education and training
• Promoting laws, policies and programmes that protect the rights of adolescents and protect them from violence, exploitation and abuse
• Enabling adolescents to overcome barriers to essential services, such as quality health care, and stepping up the challenge to poverty and inequity.

If these investments are made a new generation of young adults will emerge and lead healthier and more productive lives.

UNICEF dedicates 'The State of the World's Children 2011' to adolescents. Watch the video below:

[i] United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 revision, , accessed October 2010; and UNICEF global databases, accessed October 2010.

[ii] Achieving the MDGs with equity, no. 9, UNICEF, New York, 2010; and Statistical Tables 1–10, pp. 88–129.

[iii] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute of Statistics, Out-of-School Adolescents, UIS, Montreal, 2010, p. 10.

[iv] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010: Reaching the marginalized, UNESCO, Paris, 2010, p. 74.

[v] International Labour Office, Global Employment Trends for Youth August 2010: Special issue on the impact of the global economic crisis on youth, International Labour Organization, Geneva, 2010, pp. 3–6.

[vi] United Nations Children’s Fund, Progress for Children: A report card on child protection, no. 8, UNICEF, New York, 2009, pp. 46–47; and Statistical Table 9, p. 120.

Young people working to demand the implementation of programmes that put young people’s leadership at the centre of national HIV responses

From Brazil to Mexico young people in Latin America are busily coordinating their inputs to communicate a unified message in the upcoming regional universal access consultation to be held 1-2 March 2011 in Mexico.

The main recommendation young people in Latin America are proposing is the need to strengthen HIV prevention programmes for young people. Ricardo Baruch from GYCA Mexico, who has been assisting with the consultations says, “HIV prevention continues to be our main challenge. We want evidence-based strategies that respond to all youth, particularly gays, lesbians, trans and intersex youth, youth using drugs and youth doing sex work and others in extreme vulnerability.”   

The regional focal point for Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS  (GYCA) in Latin America, Manuella Donato from Brazil, explained how they have been collecting input from coalition members, Youth RISE, Advocates for Youth, The Global Network of people living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) and Positive Youth. Participating in the regional consultation is an important part of their strategy for youth engagement in the HIV response in Latin America. It is also part of a broader strategy to place young people at the centre of the upcoming United Nations High-level Meeting on AIDS.

The 2010 data from UNAIDS shows clear evidence that young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution by adopting safer sexual practices. However young people still face challenges in accessing youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services relating to HIV.

“The homophobia and machismo in Latin America is a major barrier to improve access to HIV prevention services and information for all,” notes Mr Baruch.

Young people in Latin America are also demanding the implementation of a comprehensive set of programmes that put young people’s leadership at the centre of national responses. They argue that such programmes should provide rights-based sexual and reproductive health education and services to empower young people to prevent sexual transmission of HIV among their peers.

They are working to achieve access to HIV testing and prevention efforts with and for young people in the context of sexuality education.  They are also advocating for the establishment of enabling legal environments, education and employment opportunities to reduce vulnerability to HIV.

Since the World Youth Conference in 2010 and the HIV and youth empowerment event organised on the side-lines of the conference, young people have participated in a series of national universal access consultations. Now they will voice their joint recommendations through Ms Donato as she delivers the opening statement during the Latin American regional universal access consultation in Mexico.

In line with the strategic direction to revolutionize HIV prevention within the UNAIDS Strategy, the UNAIDS Cosponsor agencies in Latin America have chosen the work with young people as one of their main priorities for 2010-12. Following the Mexico Declaration of sexual education for all, signed on 01 August 2008 by Ministers of Education and Health, the UN response in the region will focus on the development of HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health policies and programmes for all young people.

UNAIDS Regional Director for Latin America, César A. Núñez emphasizes the importance of engaging young people in the response at all levels. “A partnership between young people, the national AIDS programmes, the UN family and bilateral partners will be crucial to respond to the vision of zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths.”

Manuella Donato and her colleagues from Latin America are coming to the consultation ready to move the prevention revolution ahead. “We will mobilize our peers and motivate them to demand that their rights be fulfilled so that we can achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support by 2015”.