What is the issue?
Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face the highest HIV risk of any group. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that engaging in transactional sex plays a significant role in increasing girls and young women’s vulnerability to HIV. Transactional sex relationships are non- commercial, non-marital sexual relationships motivated by the implicit assumption that sex is exchanged for material goods or other benefits.
Impact case study: Informing programming to reduce the HIV risk of transactional sex
Transactional sexual relationships have been shown to increase the HIV risk faced by adolescent girls and young women. Too often, however, programming to address this risk is based on simplistic and misleading definitions of the practice and of what motivates girls and young women to engage in it.
This Impact Case Study reports on the substantial progress that STRIVE has made towards achieving the strategic goal for the 'Transactional Sex' stream of work:
Age-disparate sex and HIV risk in Tanzania and Uganda
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Age-disparate sex – when adolescent girls or young women (AGYW) have sex with men ten years or older than they are – is associated with increased risk of HIV for these young women. However, little is known about the dynamics of such relationships from the perspectives of those who engage in it or about the communities in which these relationships are embedded.
Developing Experimental Vignettes to Identify Gender Norms Associated With Transactional Sex for Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Central Uganda
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Transactional sex or informal sexual exchange relationships increase adolescent girls' and young women's (AGYW) HIV and pregnancy risk in sub-Saharan Africa. These relationships are grounded in the shared expectation that men should provide financial support to their partners. The authors in this paper built a vignette experiment to assess whether gender norms influenced by expectations of provision help to explain how transactional sex increases AGYW's sexual and reproductive health risks.
Findings
Improving the Measurement of Transactional Sex in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Transactional sex, or informal sexual exchange, is considered to be an important contributing factor to the disproportionately high HIV infection rates experienced by adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa. Nonetheless, confusion remains over how best to define and measure this practice, hindering efforts to mitigate the role of transactional sex in the epidemic.
Informing programming to reduce the HIV risk of transactional sex
Drivers:
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We have made substantial progress towards achieving the strategic goal for this stream of work within STRIVE:
Programmes to reduce HIV risk and empower young women in sub-Saharan Africa are informed by a clear definition of transactional sex and understanding of the multiple motivations for engaging in the practice.
Age-disparate sex and HIV risk in Tanzania and Uganda
Background
Age-disparate sex – when adolescent girls or young women (AGYW) have sex with men ten years or older than they are – is associated with increased risk of HIV for these young women. However, little is known about the dynamics of such relationships from the perspectives of those who engage in it or about the communities in which these relationships are embedded.
“Eat and you will be eaten”: a qualitative study exploring costs and benefits of age-disparate sexual relationships in Tanzania and Uganda: implications for girls’ sexual and reproductive health interventions
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Age-disparate sex is heterosexual intercourse with a non-marital partner ten plus years older. In sub-Saharan Africa, these relationships are characterised by romantic/sexual involvement between adolescent girls and younger women (AGYW) and older men and may involve transactional sex. These relationships have been found to increase AGYW’s risk of HIV and other sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems.
This study sought the views of both groups on the motivations and perceived benefits of engaging in such relationships and on the social and SRH consequences.
Sex and the sugar daddy
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In Kenya, more and more young women are using sugar daddies to fund a lifestyle worth posting on social media. Transactional sex was once driven by poverty, says film-maker Nyasha Kadandara. But now, increasingly, it's driven by vanity.
Older men have always used gifts, status, and influence to buy access to young women. The sugar daddy has probably been around, in every society, for as long as the prostitute. So you might ask: "Why even have a conversation about transactional sex in Africa?"
Facebook live session - Transactional sex and HIV risk: from analysis to action
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