What Works for Women and Girls

established national action plans on women, girls and HIV with multi-stakeholder involvementthat include “a range of activities aimed at improving HIV prevention for women andgirls and mitigating the impact of AIDS on them.” However, in 2007 only six of these planshad been costed out and partial funding had been provided for their implementation in justthree countries (UNAIDS 2007c).Analysis of the National Composite Policy Index from 130 countries of progress in creatingan enabling policy environment for women suggests that policies and strategic plans are integratingwomen-related issues, but that funding for implementation is lagging (Carael et al.,2009).What Works Provides Evidence to Inform ProgrammingOne reason for the lag in program implementation is the lack of easily accessible informationon which strategies are most effective in addressing women’s and girls’ HIV prevention,treatment, care and support needs. What Work for Women and Girls: Evidence for HIV/AIDSInterventions compiles the evidence available to support successful interventions for HIV andAIDS among women and girls with some attention to TB,malaria and hepatitis as they relate to HIV and AIDS.Much can be learned foreffective interventions globallyfrom the evidence basegarnered over the 25 years of theAIDS pandemic(Beck and Mays, 2006).Clearly, the question of “what works,” is complex.A more meaningful question is: “What policies did thecountry develop that led to implementation of specific interventionsthat can be shown to have reduced risk behaviorresulting in fewer new infections, which became evidentin falling HIV prevalence rates?” (Parkhurst, 2008: 276).In designing HIV and AIDS programs, policymakers andprogram planners are faced with a wide array of interventions.With scarce resources and growing demand for services, program priorities must bebased on effective interventions. Most scientific and biomedical research on HIV and AIDSinterventions has been written for scientists; little has been written specifically for policymakers.This material is intended for practitioners who are designing HIV and AIDS interventionsmeant to address the needs of women and girls, and who are deciding among priorityinterventions. Organizations that provide assistance to programs worldwide will also benefitfrom this evidence.This evidence was obtained primarily through detailed searches of peer-reviewed publicationsdocumenting evaluated interventions for women and girls. In all, the evidence for WhatWorks and Promising interventions includes 455 studies. [See Chapter 2. Methodology]There are obvious limitations inherent in this approach: many worthwhile interventions donot have sex-disaggregated data, many interventions are not thoroughly evaluated, still othersare not published in peer-reviewed journals or are not published at all. While this review coversmany aspects of HIV/AIDS programming that are relevant for both women and men, it is30 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION