What Works for Women and Girls

Chapter 1.IntroductionFor more than 25 years AIDS has been taking a ravaging global toll. Women now make up halfof those living with HIV infection. In sub-Saharan Africa—the region most affected—womenaccount for nearly 60% of those living with HIV (UNAIDS, 2008). Women’s and girls’ vulnerabilityto HIV infection stems from a greater biological riskthat is compounded by gender inequalities, violations ofwomen’s human rights, including violence, and, for somewomen, criminalization and marginalization.The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among womenand girls has not gone unnoticed. Numerous internationalpolitical declarations have recognized women’s and girls’specific risks and needs and have committed to act toaddress them. Multilateral and bilateral donors have establishedstrategies to better address women, girls, genderequality and HIV/AIDS and a number of countries havedeveloped national action plans. However, the funding andimplementation of evidence-based programs for womenand girls continue to lag.This document demonstratesthe substantial existing evidenceon meeting the needs of womenand girls in developing countriesfacing the AIDS pandemic.It also serves to highlight thegaps that must be fi lled withstrongly evaluated researchThere is an urgent need to develop and scale up strategies to address the needs of womenand girls in the global AIDS response and to support women as agents of change. To do thiseffectively, we need evidence. The purpose of What Works for Women and Girls: Evidence forHIV/AIDS Interventions is to provide the evidence necessary to inform country-level programming.What Works is a comprehensive review, spanning 2,000 articles and reports with datafrom more than 90 countries, that has uncovered a number of interventions for which thereis substantial evidence of success: from prevention, treatment, care and support to strengtheningthe enabling environment for policies and programming. What Works also highlights anumber of gaps in programming that remain.27