On International Women’s Day, I am calling for the provision of HIV services and the protection of the rights of adolescent girls and young women to be stepped up. Adolescent girls and young women are still disproportionally affected by HIV. In eastern and southern Africa in 2017, 79% of new HIV infections among 10–19-year-olds were among females.
An estimated 50 adolescent girls die every day from AIDS-related illnesses. And each day, some 460 adolescent girls become infected with HIV. Accountability is critical and we are far behind reaching the Fast-Track Targets for 2020 agreed by all countries in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. Services for adolescent girls and young women are especially failing to reach those who are falling the furthest behind—adolescent girls and young women who experience gender-based violence, who are sexually exploited or who use drugs, among others.
Fuelled by gender inequalities, adolescent girls and young women face discrimination that compounds their vulnerabilities to HIV. They are largely invisible, underserved and underrepresented in policies, services and investments. When girls can’t uphold their human rights—especially their sexual and reproductive health and rights—efforts to get to zero exclusion, zero discrimination, zero violence and zero stigma are undermined. It is time to break the vicious cycle of gender inequities, gender-based violence and HIV infection, once and for all. Oppression and power imbalances must be reversed and harmful masculinities must be consigned to the history books.
