| From: |
joya banerjee [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
FW: Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from Early Adolescence toYoung Adulthood
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| Sent: |
Jun 3rd, 2011 - 05:13:10 |
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Important report!
-----Original Message-----
Communication Insights: Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from Early
Adolescence to Young Adulthood
http://bitly.com/OICReportTheCI
Dear Sphindile,
Many best wishes. This note introduces you, as a valued member of The
Communication Initiative network ( http://comminit.com/global ) to
"Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from Early Adolescence to Young
Adulthood". Released today, June 1 2011, by the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partners in Johannesburg, South Africa, the
report presents new data on HIV prevalence and incidence in adolescents
and young people, breaking down the data by country and region. It also
highlights high-risk behaviours while focusing on key gaps and
opportunities for effective HIV prevention among youth.
Globally, there were an estimated 2 million adolescents aged 10-19 and 5
million young people aged 15-24 living with HIV in 2009. Every day, some
2,500 young people are newly infected. Young women make up more than 60%
of all young people living with HIV, and in sub-Saharan Africa their
share jumps to 72%. "Opportunity in Crisis" highlights the importance of
scaling up age-appropriate interventions as part of a continuum of HIV
prevention for adolescents and young people throughout their lives.
The report, from UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, ILO, WHO, and the World
Bank, comes a week ahead of the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level
Meeting on AIDS, which will take place from June 8-10 2011 in New York.
HIV and AIDS organisations, governmental and non-governmental, from
around the world will come together to review progress and chart the
future course of the global AIDS response. Member States are expected to
adopt a new Declaration that will reaffirm current commitments and
reassert the need for further actions to guide and sustain the global
AIDS response.
The below note starts with 5 core communication lessons from the report,
followed by more detailed excerpts.
To download the full report, "Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV
Infection from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood" (UNICEF, June 1st
2011), please see: http://bitly.com/OICReportTheCI
To download the poster "A Global View of HIV Infections in Adolescents
and Young People", please see: http://bitly.com/OICPosterTheCI
===
Five selected key communication-related findings excerpted from the
report:
* "...High risk behaviours such as early sexual debut, pregnancy and
experiences with drug use are all signs of things going wrong in the
environment of the young adolescent...
* Stigma and discrimination fuel the HIV epidemic and hinder an
effective response...
* Young people themselves are central to the success of prevention
efforts. Empowered with comprehensive, correct knowledge about HIV, they
are more likely to abandon risky behaviours and seek out HIV prevention
services.
* Communities are integral to successful HIV prevention. Young peoples'
families, peers, elders, teachers and co-workers have a crucial role to
play in advocating on their behalf for the services they need to stay
healthy. They also play a vital role in changing discriminatory
attitudes and harmful social norms that place young people at risk.
* Governments are responsible for shaping the legal and policy
landscapes that can help prevent HIV. Governments and parliaments have
the power to revise laws and knock down legal barriers that restrict
young people from accessing existing HIV prevention, care and treatment
services..."
===
From "Introduction" (pages 1-3):
* "...the 2010 target - a 25 per cent reduction - is unlikely to be met.
The young women and men living with HIV today are the most visible
evidence of the world's failure to keep its promise to prevent HIV
infection among young people and to empower them to protect themselves
and live healthy, AIDS-free lives..."
* "In countries with generalized epidemics (a number of countries in
sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti and Papua New Guinea), there are
opportunities to foster an environment that will encourage healthy
attitudes and behaviours, ensure greater gender equality and allow
protection against vulnerability to take root and become the new norm.
This is particularly important for young women and girls....Here, the
same social norms that tolerate domestic violence also prevent women
from refusing unwanted sexual advances, negotiating safe sex or
criticizing a male partner's infidelity. The silence and complicity
around this inequality must, and can, be broken."
* "In low-level and concentrated epidemics (Central and Eastern Europe
and the Commonwealth of Independent States, East Asia and the Pacific,
Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and
South Asia), where HIV infections among youth are driven by injecting
drug use, sex work or male-to-male sex, there are opportunities to
reshape a legal and social milieu that compounds vulnerability and
marginalization and to reach out in a sustained, effective way to make
young people aware of the risk factors and facilitate their access to
protection and health care."
* "Young people's families, peers, elders, teachers and co-workers have
a crucial role to play in advocating on their behalf for the services
they need to stay healthy and thrive....Efforts at changing community
norms have been effective on a small scale in the United Republic of
Tanzania, where the image of men seeking relations with younger women
and girls was effectively turned into an image of ridicule...and in
Zimbabwe, where the visibility of AIDS-related mortality appears to have
been a decisive factor in large-scale behavioural and social change with
respect to multiple partnerships..."
* "Community support is particularly important in times of emergency,
when the breakdown of social structures and the adoption of certain
behaviours as a means of coping, combined with disruptions in the
delivery of HIV prevention services, may increase young people's risk of
HIV infection. Particularly in emergencies, food and livelihood
insecurity may encourage the practice of sex in return for food, shelter
and other necessities."
* "Governments shape the legal and policy landscapes that can help
prevent HIV Governments and parliaments are front-line actors for
revising laws regarding the age of consent for HIV testing and
care-seeking..."
* "The way governments and policymakers address education, training and
employment needs in their countries influences young people's ability to
navigate HIV risks in their environment and shapes how they see their
future. Yet, in many places government action is falling short..."
* "...It will take years before investments in social and behavioural
change, systems improvement and community empowerment show results in
terms of infections averted. Nonetheless, donors and governments must
not shy away from making these investments."
From "State of the epidemic among young people" (pages 4-8):
* "In most countries with low-level and concentrated epidemics,
infection is spread primarily by people (many of them young) who engage
in behaviours that are contrary to accepted cultural norms and that may
even be illegal. These groups often experience high levels of
discrimination, which impedes their access to services that may also be
less available and of less-certain quality."
* "Data from selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa show that most
young people living with HIV do not know their status...though...young
women, at great risk, are more likely to know they are infected than
young men, in part because they have access to antenatal services where
HIV testing and counselling are offered more regularly..."
* "There is evidence that core interventions to prevent infections among
adolescents and young people can be effective when used as part of a
combination prevention approach that includes behavioural, biomedical
and structural components..."
* "The responses described in the...chapters ["Very Young Adolescents"
(pages 9-12), "Older Adolescents" (pages 13-19), "Young Adults" (pages
20-23), "Adolescents and Young People Living with HIV" (pages 24-27)]
show promise or have been proven effective by evaluations and other
evidence..."
From "Opportunities for action" (pages 28-29):
* The publication recommends renewed attention to key steps:
1. Provide young people with information and comprehensive sexuality
education - Avenues for accurate and comprehensive information should
include schools, health services, community programmes and faith-based
institutions as well as media that engage young people.
2. Strengthen child protection and social protection measures to prevent
exploitation of vulnerable children and adolescents...
3. Engage young people - ...Technology can strengthen young people's
connection to one another and the world around them, and can improve
demand and uptake of effective prevention services and commodities.
4. Engage communities in shaping a positive social environment that
promotes healthy behaviour - Communities must listen to young people,
support them and allow them to contribute. Schools, social groups,
families and local leaders can further HIV prevention by cultivating
'safer' attitudes and behavioural norms among adults. National
programmes can better engage young people through technology, innovation
and the effective use of social and broadcast media.
5. Establish laws and policies that respect young people's rights -
Legislation and policies need to be adopted and service delivery
personnel trained, so that young people get full benefit from existing
systems. Barriers to access and uptake of commodities and services must
be removed through sustained and well-targeted advocacy involving all
key stakeholders. Information on policies and rights must also be made
available to young people and service providers.
6. Scale up proven interventions for HIV prevention - Governments should
work with civil society organizations and the private sector to ensure
better communication about HIV services...and to create effective demand
for services and commodities, such as condoms...
7. Increase the number of adolescents and young people who know their
HIV status...
8. Expand comprehensive services for young people living with HIV,
paying special attention to adolescents...
9. Strengthen monitoring, evaluation and data reporting on young people,
particularly adolescents - ...Evaluation approaches should include young
people's perceptions, views and satisfaction regarding the
accessibility, relevance and quality of the services provided them."
===
To download the full report, "Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV
Infection from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood" (UNICEF, June 1st
2011), please see: http://bitly.com/OICReportTheCI
To download the poster "A Global View of HIV Infections in Adolescents
and Young People", please see: http://bitly.com/OICPosterTheCI
Further information may be requested from:
Susan Kasedde
Senior Specialist
HIV Prevention in Adolescents
UNICEF
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
United States
skasedde (at) unicef.org
http://www.unicef.org
===
Thank you,
The Communication Initiative
info (at) comminit.com
www.comminit.com
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