AVAC's Blog: P-Values

In 2016, the Key Population Investment Fund (KPIF) was announced by PEPFAR leader Ambassador Deborah Birx at the UN High-Level Meeting. It took two years before this commitment materialized, and at the AIDS 2018 conference in Amsterdam, Ambassador Birx announced that the funds would finally be disbursed to selected awardees through PEPFAR agencies to existing cooperative agreements. The $100M (split between CDC and USAID) is meant to support scale-up of key population-led community approaches to expand and enhance HIV services. In Uganda, the $10m envelope of funding for KPIF is being implemented by CDC through existing implementing partners like The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) and Baylor.

A new report, What we know and don’t know about adolescent girls and young women and HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa: Mapping findings across completed, ongoing and planned projects, analyzes data from 49 projects in 20 countries to identify steps that will advance HIV prevention awareness, uptake and adherence by adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). Among the findings is the existence of a robust body of knowledge that explores young women’s attitudes about HIV prevention. But the field knows far less about the effect of communities on attitudes and behaviors related to prevention, even though that support is thought to be crucial to the uptake of HIV prevention. These and other findings in the report can inform implementers and policy makers now, and they also point to where more research is needed.

Please join women and our allies for a global webinar, Thursday, June 27, 9-10am EDT / 3-4pm SAST / 4-5pm EAT, on shaping the post-ECHO agenda for comprehensive sexuality and reproductive health and rights. This emerging agenda will inform an upcoming WHO meeting on this critical subject.

At a satellite symposium at the South African AIDS Conference linked to a publication in The Lancet, the ECHO trial of contraceptive use and impact on HIV risk released its results. The topline finding: There was no substantial difference in HIV risk among women using DMPA-IM, the LNG implant or the copper IUD.