RIATT-ESA to Provide Vital Support to the Global Alliance's Regional Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa

The Regional Inter-Agency Task Team on Children and AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa (RIATT-ESA) is honored to announce its appointment by UNICEF to support the Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children by 2030 Regional Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa.

RIATT-ESA is excited to embark on this new journey as a key player in the Global Alliance's Regional Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa. The network remains dedicated to its vision of universal access to prevention, treatment, care, and support for children, adolescents and families affected by AIDS in the region, and is poised to make a significant impact in the years to come.

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Position Paper: Children and young women in eastern and southern Africa are key to meeting 2030 HIV targets: time to accelerate action

By Kaymarlin Govender, Patrick Nyamaruze, Richard G Cowden, Yogan Pillay, Linda-Gail Bekker

New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths among children and adolescent girls and young women (aged 15–24 years) in eastern and southern Africa continue to occur at unacceptably high rates. The COVID-19 pandemic has also severely undermined ongoing initiatives for HIV prevention and treatment, threatening to set the region back further in its efforts to end AIDS by 2030. Major impediments exist to attaining the UNAIDS 2025 targets among children, adolescent girls, young women, young mothers living with HIV, and young female sex workers residing in eastern and southern Africa. Each population has specific but overlapping needs with regard to diagnosis and linkage to and retention in care. Urgent action is needed to intensify and improve programmes for HIV prevention and treatment, including sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls and young women, HIV-positive young mothers, and young female sex workers.

Check here for more details: file:///C:/Users/HP/Downloads/1-s2.0-S2352301823000127-main_%20children%20and%20HIV%20targets_Lancet%20HIV.pdf

Policy Brief On Strengthening Paediatric HIV Testing In The Eastern and Southern African Region

This policy brief outlines proposed policy alternatives to addressing paediatric HIV testing – related challenges being experienced in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region.

Evidence for the policy brief was documented through an assessment of the National Paediatric Testing Guidelines and Advocacy in this region that was commissioned by Regional Inter-Agency Task Team on Children & AIDS.

The full police brief can be obtained through this link https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGrcXjNmKZLpKSXqjXhZpfFqPMR?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

“She Cannot Just Sit Around Waiting to Turn Twenty” Understanding Why Child Marriage Persists in Kenya and Zambia

The findings of the 2016 report by the International Center on Research for Women (ICRW), confirm that adolescent girls in diverse communities of Kenya and Zambia face many of the same challenges as girls in areas where more evidence about child marriage exists. These include challenges in deciding when and whom to marry, in achieving their aspirations and in feeling supported by their parents and communities. However, the pathways to child marriage, and therefore the types of interventions that could be used to interrupt those pathways, are contextually-specific. Innovation and adaptation of existing programs will be necessary to meet the unique needs of adolescent girls, their families and communities in Kenya and Zambia, particularly guaranteed access to quality education. Click here to download the report