Investing in Adolescent Girls and Young Women’s Leadership and Voice in the HIV Response

Adolescent girls and young women, particularly those living with HIV, play critical roles in HIV response efforts, despite being disproportionately affected by the virus.

Empowering them with knowledge about their rights, enhancing their advocacy skills and increasing their ability to identify opportunities to influence policy change, is essential to breaking barriers to accessing HIV services, ending AIDS as a public health threat, and advancing gender equality.

Between 2022 and 2023, in partnership with UN Women, Gender at Work led feminist leadership training and tailored inter-generational mentoring initiatives under the Investing in Adolescent Girls and Young Women’s Leadership and Voice in the HIV Response programme, which was implemented in 15 countries across Africa, where adolescent girls and young women are living with some of the highest rates of HIV risk and infection globally.

From building feminist leadership capacities, including through mentorship of adolescent girls and young women for a more gender-transformative HIV response, towards creating safe spaces for adolescent girls, and inter-generational dialogue and feminist movement-building for better health, this report shares accomplishments, lessons learned, and powerful impact stories of young women leaders who are advocating for change in the HIV response.

Scroll down to read the report.