STRIVE aims to enhance insights into how research can be effectively used to inform policy, and to take advantage of ‘natural experiments’ to learn about the impact of policy reform on attitudes, sexual behaviour and HIV risk in our focal countries.
The STRIVE RPC will pay specific attention to the special challenges involved in effecting long term, structural changes as they relate to HIV, while also studying its own efforts to influence change by evaluating partners’ mobilisation to effect policy change in their local setting. Methods include:
- Policy and program mapping in each focal setting to identify who is working on key drivers, what innovative programs exist, who must be influenced to effect change, and what policy gaps can be targeted.
- In depth case studies of the RPC’s efforts to influence policy as it is applied across multiple sites in focal countries
- Knowledge synthesis through policy dialogue that brings together policymakers, researchers, and advocates in structured workshops to theorize about the process and impact of policy change
