FEATURE20 June 2019

A safer approach

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Andrea Rademeyer

Features Healthcare Impact Middle East and Africa

HIV prevention in South Africa requires more than a single programmatic approach, as young women are influenced by behavioural factors such as relationship goals when it comes to safe sex. By Andrea Rademeyer

A safer approach

HIV has a significant impact on communities in South Africa, where approximately one-fifth of women in their reproductive years (aged 15-49 ) are HIV positive. Empowering and understanding adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 15-24, who are at the highest risk of contracting HIV, is critical to managing its transmission.

This was the aim of a recent study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a cross-continental partnership between behavioural science and design consultancy Final Mile Consulting, strategy and innovation company Upstream, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition in the US, and market research company Ask Afrika in South Africa.

The goal was to understand HIV prevention-related decisions within the context of young women’s lifestyles and their take-up of prevention products – such as condoms or oral, injection or ring HIV prophylaxis drugs – to help reduce HIV transmission in South Africa.

The study forms part of the HIV Prevention Market Manager project, which partners with various organisations involved in ...