Responding to the heightened vulnerability of young women and adolescent girls to HIV, the Government of South Africa has launched a nationwide HIV prevention campaign. Entitled SheConquers, the three-year, multimillion rand campaign was launched at a session hosted by the South African Ministry of Health during the 21st International AIDS Conference, taking place in Durban, South Africa.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, HIV is a leading cause of deaths among adolescents aged 10–19, and two thirds of all new HIV infections among adolescents occur among adolescent girls. Only a quarter of girls and a third of boys are estimated to have full understanding of how HIV is transmitted and can be prevented.  

In what was a lively session held on 20 July, filled with performance, song and dance, the UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Jan Beagle, representatives of key partners in South Africa’s AIDS response, including the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and a multitude of young women and girls engaged in the national AIDS response came together to celebrate and advocate for South Africa’s increased focus on HIV prevention for young women and adolescent girls. The session included presentations and demonstrations of innovative prevention strategies to ensure tailored in-school and out-of-school programmes for young women and adolescent girls, including for HIV testing, condom distribution, sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted infection management.

SheConquers is built around a five-point strategy that aims to decrease new HIV infections, teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence among young women and adolescent girls, and to increase and retain young women and adolescent girls in school and increase economic opportunities for young people, particularly young women.

Speaking at the session, Ms Beagle underlined that the particular vulnerabilities faced by young women and adolescent girls require the comprehensive response promoted through SheConquers to addresses social contexts, to look at determinants that define the epidemic and to put empowering information and tools in the hands of young people. The Sustainable Development Goals and the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS, which promote women’s leadership and empowerment and integrated approaches to sexual and reproductive health and address violence and discrimination against women and girls, provide a key opportunity to ensure that girls and women are empowered with the means and autonomy to make life-defining choices, including with respect to their own health.