Measuring progress on children and AIDS
Co-authored by UNICEF, UNAIDS and WHO, Children and AIDS: Second Stocktaking Report, is a review of progress on how AIDS affects children and young people. Focusing on low and middle income countries, the report reveals that there is a strong need for more evidence-based information for HIV/AIDS prevention efforts.
For millions of children, HIV and AIDS have starkly altered the experience of growing up.
In 2007, it was estimated that 2.1 million children under 15 were living with HIV. As of 2005, more than 15 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
Millions more have experienced deepening poverty, school dropout and discrimination as a result of the epidemic.
UNICEF’s Children and AIDS: Second Stocktaking Report, co-authored by UNAIDS and WHO reviews progress made on children and AIDS in four key areas (four Ps): Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV; provision of paediatric treatment; protection and support of children affected by AIDS; and prevention of infection among adolescents and young people.
In 2005, UNICEF issued a Call to Action to Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS to all those working to protect children from the consequences of the epidemic.
The initiative was based on stakeholders’ commitment to reaching the Millennium Development Goals and living up to the promises made by world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/ AIDS in 2001.
The stocktaking report also show progress on the protection and care for children affected by AIDS in many countries and on their access to social services.
Progress has also been made in school enrollment rates for children who have lost both parents to the disease, although children affected by HIV are still more likely to fall behind in school and to live in poorer households.
The report says efforts to reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission have seen the most significant gains.
In 2005, only 11% of women living with HIV were getting drugs to prevent transmission. Now, 31% are receiving treatment.
Advances in paediatric care have been equally dramatic. In 2005, only 70,000 children were getting antiretroviral drugs (ARVs); but in 2006, the number rose to 127,000 – a 70% increase.
The report highlights the urgent need for better evidence-based information on the behaviours of adolescents and young people to improve and focus HIV prevention efforts to where they will be most effective.
It also outlines the importance of involving young people in the design, implementation and monitoring of HIV prevention programmes for young people.
A final theme of this report is the challenge of measurement. Documenting advances and shortfalls strengthens commitment and guides progress.
A number of countries have data available on the ‘Four Ps’, and targeted studies are being developed to assess the situation of the marginalised young people who are most at risk but often missed in routine surveys.
Source: UNICEF
