In accordance with the regional targets, national catch-up plans have been put in place in 18 countries in western and central Africa.

In many sub-Saharan African countries, declines in child mortality combined with a slow decline in fertility have resulted in children and young adults comprising a large part of the overall population. This is known as the youth bulge. The youth bulge is not new. Younger generations have almost always been larger than the previous generation. However, before the twentieth century, high child mortality meant that a large proportion of children did not survive to adulthood.

This document provides an overview of the latest available UNAIDS data on youth and HIV, including new indicators reported for the first time on consent requirements to access services, access to CSE, and youth participation in the HIV response. It also provides an explanation of youth participation through the three-lens approach, engaging youth as beneficiaries, partners and leaders, adapted to the HIV response, as a recommendation for policy-makers, programmers, implementers and other stakeholders to strive for better and greater youth participation, fulfil the commitments in the 2016 Political Declaration, and end AIDS by 2030.

This edition of UNAIDS data highlights these challenges and successes. It contains the very latest data on the world’s response to HIV, consolidating a small part of the huge volume of data collected, analysed and refined by UNAIDS over the years. The full data set of information for 1990 to 2017 is available on aidsinfo.unaids.org.

This first progress report shows that members of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition have mobilized around strengthening HIV primary prevention. There are clear signs of renewed political commitment and strengthened institutional arrangements for planning and managing prevention programmes. Most member countries have moved fast to develop HIV prevention action plans, and there are many examples of excellent and innovative new initiatives. Furthermore, interest in the HIV prevention agenda and the Coalition is growing. A global accountability process has been set up, with score cards that track progress across a range of high-priority prevention programme areas.

We cannot stand by and allow the quality of life of women and girls to be held back and their hopes and dreams for the future to slip away. We must work collectively to close the gaps that continue to leave women and girls behind. Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 depends on advancing a social justice agenda that demands access to education, employment, health services, justice and political representation, free from discrimination and violence.

This report briefly describes and defines the challenges and impacts of discrimination in health-care settings. Such discrimination affects people seeking access to HIV prevention, testing, treatment, care and support measures, as well as health-care workers in their workplace. International human rights standards provide the rationale for catalysing global action to eliminate such discrimination. This report aims to serve as a reference for policy-makers and other key stakeholders engaged in shaping policies and programmes to regulate health care, and eliminate discrimination and other structural barriers to achieving healthy lives for all.

This report compiles the latest body of evidence on how stigma and discrimination create barriers across the HIV prevention, testing and treatment cascades and reduce the impact of the AIDS response. The report also brings together best practices on confronting stigma and discrimination, providing a valuable resource for programme managers, policy-makers, health-care providers and communities. The evidence shows that the establishment of people-centred service delivery models, supportive legal and policy frameworks, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and sensitization training for health-care workers and other duty bearers can promote inclusion and increase access to services.