JAIDS 2016 Impact of Health Communication on HIV Treatment Outcomes - In-person and Online event

A selection of authors featured in the December 9 supplement of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) presented.

Webinar: Making the Most of In-Service Communication: A Reference Guide to VMMC Counseling

This November 7, 2016 webinar VMMC walks users through the new VMMC In-Service Communication Best Practices Guide, which helps to ensure that the communication and counseling at VMMC sites is comprehensive and standardized across PEPFAR’s country programs.

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision In-Service Communication Best Practices Guide

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief’s (PEPFAR’s) Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) Technical Working Group(TWG) identified the need for a counseling reference guide during external quality assurance assessments conducted in several priority countries in 2013-2014. These assessments revealed inconsistencies in core content and key messages communicated to clients. The Communication Sub-Group (CSG) later confirmed the need for this guide by conducting a review of in-service communication (ISC) materials. A total of 37 communication materials used in nine countries, including training guides and job aides for group education and individual counseling, were reviewed as a purposive sample to gauge key topics covered in ISC/counseling activities across the VMMC service continuum.

Swaziland Dual Protection Materials

Swaziland Dual Protection materials provide information about how to DOUBLE UP – two methods are better than one – to prevent pregnancy, HIV and STIs

Young Women's Savings and Empowerment Clubs: A Guide for Mentors

The Young Women Empowerment programme focuses on reducing the vulnerability of young women (20-24) to HIV and gender based violence (GBV) through community-based HIV prevention, using a combination of socio-economic approaches. This tool is focusing on economic empowerment, conducting financial education training and helping to start savings and loans self-help clubs for young women.

Engaging Community Leaders: A Tool For Facilitating Dialogue

This tool is aimed at engaging community leaders to reduce vulnerabilities and increase the safety of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Swaziland's HIV response. It was developed to assist community leaders in creating a protective environment to reduce the vulnerability of AGYW and advocate for modification of harmful cultural norms and practices that place AGYW at risk of HIV infection.

Technical Considerations for Demand Generation for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in the Context of the Age Pivot

In alignment with U.S. Presidents Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief’s (PEPFAR) approach to do the right thing, at the right time and place for the right people in order to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiencies, the COP16 technical considerations highlight the importance of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for a more focused target audience. The focus on men ages 15 to 29 as a primary audience is termed “the Age Pivot.”

Scaling Up and Sustaining Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Maintaining HIV Prevention Benefits

This article asserts that, in order to maintain high circumcision prevalence, voluntary medical male circumcision programs in Eastern and Southern Africa need to plan for sustainability and conduct transition assessments early on, rather than waiting until the saturation of priority targets at the end of the program.

Enhancing Benefits or Increasing Harms: Community Responses for HIV Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, Transgender Women, Female Sex Workers, and People Who Inject Drugs

A synthesis of evidence characterizing community-level determinants and their influence on HIV-related outcomes for key populations, this systematic review revealed a limitation of studies conducted that focused on key populations in LMICs.

Role of Community-Level Factors Across the Treatment Cascade: A Critical Review

This review – the first critical review of literature that examines the role community-level factors (CLFs) play in the design of multilevel, effective and sustainable interventions that address all elements of the HIV/AIDS treatment cascade – identified 100 peer-reviewed articles based on studies in LMICs that assessed CLFs in relation to the HIV/AIDS treatment cascade.