Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the epidemiology of HIV among young people in the ESA region. It outlines the broad range of global and regional actors who have committed political and financial resources, and how they have coalesced around a distinct set of policies to reduce new infections among adolescent girls and young women. The book discusses a multi-sectoral, country-level approach being adopted in the region to generating adolescent-specific knowledge to guide HIV programming. It also describes the heterogeneity of the HIV epidemic in terms of the differences in HIV data by age, gender and country, gaps in the HIV data and current information on the extent of human rights violations in ESA countries. The book addresses the neglect of adolescent boys and young men in HIV prevention interventions.