Nearly 40 million people are now living with HIV, the vast majority of them in developing countries. Half of all new HIV infections globally occur among young people aged 15-24 and the socioeconomic and political consequences of the HIV epidemic place these youth at further risk as the infrastructure in their countries comes under enormous strain. While Options provides expertise in key technical areas across the prevention-care-impact mitigation continuum, we specialise in HIV prevention activities and on furthering the understanding of the impacts of HIV and AIDS on people's lives in order to inform national policies and programmes.
Options believes that successful programmes to prevent and address the impacts of HIV, must recognise the multi-dimensional determinants (social, economic and cultural) of the epidemic as well as address the underlying causes of vulnerability through coordinated society-wide interventions, in particular in human rights, stigma and discrimination, poverty and gender inequality, and lack of sexual and reproductive rights. In 2007, Options prepared a background paper to inform DFID's new AIDS Strategy on the financing and institutional implications of pursuing socially transformative and structural approaches to HIV prevention. We also developed an evaluation framework for DFID's activities in gender and HIV and AIDS as part of an overall evaluation of its policies and practices on women's empowerment and gender equality.
We have specific expertise in working to combat stigma and discrimination, using tools and methodologies such
PEER as well as social marketing and behaviour change interventions. Our KfW-funded
CARISMA project supports behaviour change communication activities across the Caribbean that address stigma and discrimination, and in Rwanda Options is working with male prisoners using the PEER methodology to better understand risk behaviours that will feed into the re-design of the national HIV and AIDS prevention programme. We have researched the impact of HIV and AIDS on sectors as diverse as health, education, fisheries and sustainable livelihoods in order to inform the policy development process, and prevention and treatment programmes.
Options works closely with national governments, civil society, private sector and international development partners to support the development and implementation of effective multi-sectoral responses to HIV and AIDS. Options' technical assistance has contributed to the development of multi-sectoral responses in Zambia and Malawi and to the design and evaluation of HIV and AIDS interventions in Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and China, among other countries.
We support multi-sectoral responses through:
- Enhancing the capacity of national governments
- Supporting civil society development
- Working in partnership with the private sector
- Providing broad-based support to international donor organisations in the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes.
To learn more about Options' work in HIV and AIDS, contact Anne Nolan
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