Well into the third decade of the HIV epidemic, there remains no effective HIV preventive vaccine, microbicide, product or drug to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition. As the numbers of those infected by HIV and dying from AIDS continue to increase, the need for such biomedical HIV preventive interventions becomes ever more urgent. Several such products are at various stages of development, including some currently in phase III efficacy trials. The successful development of effective HIV preventive interventions requires that many different candidates be studied simultaneously in different populations around the world.

The Gender assessment tool for national HIV responses is intended to assist countries assess their HIV epidemic, context and response from a gender perspective, helping them to make their HIV responses gender transformative and (as such) more effective. The Tool is specifically designed to support the development or review of national strategic plans (NSP) and to inform submissions to both country investment cases and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).