Executive Summary
As the global community defines a new post-2015 development agenda, including the voices and visions of young people must be a priority. In this report, young people from around the world living with and most affected by HIV champion their vision for realizing and claiming their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and setting their priorities for HIV and SRHR integration.
The Link Up project, launched by a consortium of global and national partners in early 2013, is an ambitious three-year initiative that seeks to advance the SRHR of more than one million young people in five countries. Link Up distinctively works with young people most affected by HIV aged 10 to 24
years old, with a specific focus on young men who have sex with men, young people who do sex work, young people who use drugs, young transgender people, and young women and men living with HIV. It also seeks to amplify the voices of these young people through community mobilization and
advocacy in national and global forums, particularly those informing the post-2015 development framework. As partners in the consortium implementing Link Up, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) and ATHENA Network led a consultation with young people living with and most affected by HIV. Nearly 800 people from every region of the world responded to a global online survey1 that collected quantitative and qualitative data in five languages, and over 400 young people2 participated in a series of community dialogues and focus groups3 with national partners in Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. These face-to-face dialogues created a platform for young people living with and most affected by HIV to share their lived experiences of and hope for: accessing HIV and SRH services, including family planning and contraceptives; participating in decision-making both in their personal lives and in programming and policy; and, their vision for realizing their sexual and reproductive rights. In this document we share their voices directly, to inform clear and evidence-based
advocacy messaging that can guide both global and national post-2015 negotiations, and national and regional-level programming.
Through this process, five clear vision areas for positive change and targeted recommendations emerged, which speak to young peoples’ shared perspectives on what is needed to achieve real progress. Link Up supports the integration of HIV and SRHR programming and policy, with the aim of providing comprehensive and accessible services. Supporting integration, ensuring that young people’s sexual and
reproductive rights are prioritized, and guaranteeing that young people are meaningfully engaged and their needs recognized are all essential elements of a post- 2015 development framework that upholds the rights of young people living with and most affected by HIV. The recommendations and wider findings reported in this document provide a framework to achieve this.
First, the priorities and recommendations that emerged through the consultation are summarized. Then each is considered in detail, including the voices and visions of young people living with and most affected by HIV. For each vision area, we also include a case study of Link Up best practice profiling replicable efforts to implement the recommendations.
Read the full report here.
General Information:
