Women and girls and HIV

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On International Women's Day 2018, UNAIDS published a report detailing data and analysis of the ways in which women continue to bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic.

The opening statement, written by Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, recognises the contribution of activists and organizations working for gender equality and women's empowerment across the world and makes a call to action to work collectively:

Norms Learning Report 2: Theory in support of better practice

Discussions and lessons from a two-day expert group on using social norm and gender theories in intervention design.

Associations between friendship characteristics and HIV and HSV-2 status amongst young South African women in HPTN-068

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Prevalence of HIV among young women in South Africa remains extremely high. The characteristics of young women's friendships might influence their sexual health and HIV risk via connections to:

Preventing gender-based violence victimization in adolescent girls in lower-income countries: Systematic review of reviews

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This systematic review of reviews synthesises evidence on the impact of interventions to prevent violence against adolescent girls and young women 10–24 years in low- and middle-income countries. Theories of women's empowerment and the social ecology of multifaceted violence framed the review. Child abuse, female genital mutilation/cutting, child marriage, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence were focal outcomes. 

The main findings reveal that:

Key thematic resource pages

STRIVE have produced a wide range of academic and accessible resources which are available on our website. In 2017, we began compiling our most important thematic resources into one-page handouts to share online and at important meetings and conferences. These one-pagers provide a thematic map to our website and are available to download below.

Creating space for girls to aspire, negotiate and grow - Shweta Bankar and Martine Collumbien

Once reaching puberty there is little, if any, opportunity for girls in India to play sport as their access to public spaces is severely restricted and gender norms render them invisible. This Learning Lab shares key findings from the STRIVE study Parivartan Plus, conducted by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW-ARO). The programme uses the sport of kabaddi to empower young women and adolescent girls in Mumbai’s Shivajinagar slum community.

Correlates of school dropout and absenteeism among adolescent girls from marginalized community in north Karnataka, south India

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Structural barriers cut short the education of many adolescent girls belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe families in northern Karnataka, India.

New research casts doubt on age gap theory of HIV transmission

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An article published by Avert summarises research from South Africa suggesting that a women’s HIV risk may be driven more by their male partner’s age than by the age gap between them. The study led by the US-based Institute for Disease Modeling, took data from around 10,260 women and 7,840 men in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and analysed it from 2004 and 2015. New HIV infections were documented in 1,788 women and 579 men.

When are declines in condom use while using PrEP a concern? Modelling insights from a Hillbrow, South Africa case study

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Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a promising new prevention approach for those most at risk of HIV infection. However, there are concerns that behavioural changes, specifically reductions in condom use, might limit PrEP’s protective effect. This study uses the case of female sex workers (FSWs) in Johannesburg, South Africa, to assess whether decreased levels of condom use following the introduction of PrEP may limit HIV risk reduction.

Young women’s perceptions of transactional sex and sexual agency: a qualitative study in the context of rural South Africa

, ; Young women’s perceptions of transactional sex and sexual agency: a qualitative study in the context of rural South Africa

Evidence shows that HIV prevalence among young women in sub-Saharan Africa increases almost five-fold between ages 15 and 24, with almost a quarter of young women infected by their early-to mid-20s. Transactional sex or material exchange for sex is a relationship dynamic that has been shown to have an association with HIV infection.

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