Technical brief - STRIVE and the SDGs - Feb 2019.pdf
In 2011, STRIVE was established to develop an alternative perspective on fighting the HIV epidemic. This mandate has compelled us to think differently about how to achieve greater impact and cost efficiencies.
STRIVE's research has focused on how to address upstream risk factors that HIV shares with multiple development outcomes. We have focused on factors such as:
- economic insecurity
- unfettered alcohol availability
- stigma and discrimination
- gender norms
- gender-based violence
which powerfully affect the acquisition and onward transmission of HIV through a cascade of causal pathways.
'System' thinking
This type of 'system' thinking is an antidote to the vertical and disease-specific strategies that have largely defined the HIV field for many decades. It also shares common cause with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Achieving the the SDGs is an ambitious and hugely expensive undertaking. The ultimate challenge will be to encourage co-financing of select 'best buys' that deliver multiple benefits across many different goals. We believe that insights gained from STRIVE research can be usefully applied to this challenge.
Development synergies
STRIVE research has identified a set of key social and structural drivers that offer investment opportunities to realise co-benefits, multiply impacts and achieve what we call 'development synergies'.
In this brief we present several examples of development synergies to illustrate the concepts. Acting on these multiplier investment opportunities will require innovative forms of governance, programme planning and resourcing across sectors, constituencies and stakeholders.
Update - February 2019
In 2019, the brief was updated to include a section on HIV and violence against women and girls.
