Sexual and Reproductive Health Integration Advocacy Roadmap

This roadmap addresses the critical need for integrated sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV services. This integration is essential for enhancing public health outcomes, socio-economic benefits, and individual health and rights. The Roadmap aims to revitalize and sustain advocacy efforts for SRH and HIV integration, empower communities to hold stakeholders accountable for implementation, increase political and program support to enable the shift from policy to practice, and foster dynamic partnerships across research, advocacy, implementation, and policy sectors.

It was developed by Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) as part of the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR). It draws on extensive input, including desk reviews, interviews, focus group discussions, and a specialized workshop held at the 2023 International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA).

Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR)

Project Brief

The Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR) project focuses on developing and sustaining an Africa-centered network dedicated to accelerating biomedical HIV prevention research, and advancing equitable access to proven HIV prevention products.

HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto

The HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto emphasizes community-led leadership and the importance of choice in HIV prevention for African women and girls. The manifesto advocates for universal access to a broad range of biomedical tools for HIV prevention and underscores the transformative potential when African women and girls lead advocacy and response efforts in HIV healthcare.

More information and background on the manifesto is available on our blog.

RINGing the Bell for Choice: Actions and Solutions on Dapivirine Ring Access

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Hear the latest updates from African advocates leading the advocacy for access to the dapivirine ring. Plus tune in for the Population Council’s plans for moving the ring forward on multiple fronts, from roll-out of the monthly ring to research around the 3-month ring and multipurpose ring.

Recording / Slides / Resources

Statement on the Dapivirine Ring for Women: Call for Accelerated Global Access

This statement, from a coalition of advocates, applauds the WHO for its ongoing support and its 2021 recommendation of the dapivirine vaginal ring as an additional prevention option for women. The advocates call on funders, country governments and community leaders to sustain their support for the ring’s introduction and rollout in African countries where it is needed and for prompt regulatory reviews. And they call on HIV programs to integrate the ring, and collaborate with communities on the design of those programs.

What Matters Right Now for Rolling Out the Ring and Injectable PrEP?

The HIV field has two new approved prevention options waiting in the wings, the dapivirine vaginal ring and injectable cabotegravir as PrEP. Until now, daily oral PrEP, first approved in 2012, has been the only drug-based strategy for HIV prevention.

So here we are: research has shown safety and efficacy for both the ring and injectable cabotegravir. Now it’s time to take the next steps to deliver these options and translate advances in science into real impact on the epidemic.

At AVAC, we’ve been calling for coordinated planning to introduce and rollout new products, while expanding access to existing options. These efforts must learn from the mistakes of the past, especially lessons from rolling out oral PrEP.

In this episode of PxPulse, Linda-Gail Bekker from South Africa’s Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and Lillian Mworeko from the International Community of Women Living with HIV East Africa (ICWEA) join host Jeanne Baron and AVAC’s Executive Director Mitchell Warren to discuss innovative models for scale-up and delivery. Taking the right steps now could mean HIV prevention options fulfill their life-saving, epidemic-ending potential, and to do so requires working faster and more efficiently than ever before.

We dive into what lessons the field has learned, what’s still off-track, and the steps advocates, policy makers, drug makers and funders should each take right now to turn efficacious options into effective choices.

Resources

Dapivirine Vaginal Ring
Cabotegravir
Ring and CAB

The Well Project

Founded in 2002, The Well Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women and girls. Their website is a global online resource of information, support and advocacy for women living with HIV and their allies.

Access their resources, additional information and strong partner network at thewellproject.org.

Breaking the cycle of transmission: A human-centered approach to increase adoption and sustained use of HIV prevention among high-risk adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa

Download findings from Breaking the Cycle of Transmission, a research effort to better understand AGYW decisions and behaviors related to HIV prevention; identify different segments to better tailor outreach; and how to reach each segment more effectively. The project uses user-centered research and human-centered design and piloting.

The HIV Prevention Market Manager (PMM), co-led by AVAC and CHAI and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leads the research in partnership with behavioral research firm Final Mile, user-centered design firm Upstream Innovation and market research group Ask AfriKa, with the Surgo Foundation providing strategic guidance.

Evaluating, Scaling up and Enhancing Strategies for Supporting PrEP Continuation and Effective Use

In June 2019, the Prevention Product Manager (PMM)—a joint partnership between AVAC and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)—and Jhpiego convened a think tank to consider how best to define and measure PrEP continuation. Its recommendations included modifying current PrEP indicators, recognizing that a single definition of correct or effective use might not be possible given fluctuating and variable HIV risk.

A second think tank was held in September 2020 with the theme Evaluating, Enhancing and Scaling up Strategies for Supporting PrEP Continuation and Effective Use. This think tank explored effective and promising strategies for helping people to stay on PrEP, strategies that can be scaled up across populations and locations.

Human-Centered Design and Prevention in the Real World

In this episode of Px Pulse, we hear from AVACer Anabel Gomez about the human-centered design project she’s leading with partners in South Africa to chart a path that will better support a journey to HIV prevention. We also hear from two members of the research team—Lesego Taule and Mpumi Mbethe—who helped lead these discussions in communities where HIV is epidemic. And a program implementer for HIV prevention in South Africa, Anthony Ambrose of NACOSA, tells us how this research can be applied to programs and how it changed the way he thinks about HIV risk.