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   New report: #WhatWomenWant: HIV prevention that works for adolescent girls and young women.

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ATHENA has launched a new report, #WhatWomenWant: HIV prevention that works for adolescent girls and young women.

#WhatWomenWant is a global movement, led by ATHENA that seeks to promote this very simple principle: that the most affected are the most informed, and real solutions come from lived realities. #WhatWomenWant is a vehicle to advance gender equality within and outside of the HIV response. Through it, ATHENA seeks to amplify women’s voices, highlight our realities, and power our solutions by creating a platform for women, including young women, to influence global policy discourse that doesn’t require an invitation, or a visa.

As the UNAIDS PCB meets in Geneva, we hope that the voices of women, and young women, will be heard. This report details a project earlier this year which aimed to move the new UNAIDS guidance on HIV prevention among AGYW off the page and into action.

The guidance, HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women: Putting HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women on the Fast-Track and engaging men and boys was published in late 2016, and is intended to act as a conceptual framework to guide effective design, implementation, and delivery of HIV prevention programmes for AGYW. To do this effectively, ATHENA believes it must be implemented in an informed, contextual approach that takes into account the specific needs, rights, experiences, and challenges of the AGYW it aims to serve. We therefore carried out, with UNAIDS support, a consultation amongst AGYW, to respond to the guidance.

We asked AGYW what they needed for and from the guidance, to best enable it to deliver on its aim to reduce HIV incidence among AGYW. By utilizing a range of innovative methods to consult, inform, and amplify the voices of AGYW, we empowered adolescent girls and young women with the knowledge of this guidance and engaged them as advocates for it and their HIV prevention priorities.

This report shares the findings of that consultation, conducted using innovative social media methods and other methods, and presents an overview of the priorities of adolescent girls and young women for HIV prevention that works.