Three years ago, Adjovi Husunukpe co-founded the Western and Central African HIV+ Youth Network (RAJ+AOC) to connect with her peers and strengthen youth-led advocacy in the HIV response. “We wanted to be heard at a national and international level as one,” she said.   

The network known for its top-notch community outreach and linkage to care now has nearly 500 members across 14 countries but has hit some recent roadblocks.  

“We are all volunteers and are scraping by financially so it’s hard to project ourselves as individuals and as an organization,” said the Togolese born Ms Husunukpe. 

2025 saw a steep decrease in funding which specially affected community-led organizations. That meant a number of things for RAJ+AOC. They have to compete with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for financial support but are not considered equally.  

“People keep saying we are not legitimate because we are young people, which is unfair and untrue,” she said.  

On top of that, she said, HIV prevention and hard-fought youth-oriented programmes seem to have disintegrated into thin air. UNAIDS June Global AIDS report states that community-led organizations are often the last organizations to be funded by domestic resources and consequently have been some of the first to experience the impact of the 2025 international funding cuts. 

Adding to her worries may also be the loss of technical support from UNAIDS as country offices merge in the region.  

“We keep being told that we represent 60% of the population of the African continent but our sustainability hangs in the balance,” Ms Husunukpe said. 

Having been born with HIV and lost her parents at a young age, the 27-year-old argues that lived experience should be recognized as expertise. She and other youth leaders call for youth-led organizations to be meaningfully integrated into health policy and decision-making spaces. 

“We are invited to speak but are rarely included in drafting recommendations or shaping decisions,” the sociology student said. “Let us co-lead initiatives that respond to our real needs.” 

UNAIDS Regional HIV and Public Health Adviser, Ange-Valérie Meralli-Ballou, based in Dakar, said the data is clear. In 2025, 160,000 adolescent girls and young women acquired HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, 35% of all child HIV infections now occur in western and central Africa. Most of these infections are attributable to limited access to integrated sexual and reproductive health and rights services for youth and pregnant women. "We cannot continue to exclude the majority of the population and expect results," she said. 

In her mind, youth-led NGOs are not only willing but structurally positioned to integrate health systems if given the money and decision-making powers to do so. 

The Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 calls for promoting the creation and integration of community health centres, managed by local actors and community organizations in the region. It also strongly encourages countries to conduct communication campaigns using social media to raise HIV awareness. 

Pointing outside to young people gathered on a staircase with her outstretched right hand, Ms Meralli-Ballou said, “This strategy is a political tool or a roadmap if you will so let us use it to leverage resources, sustain youth engagement and agency, and build that future now.”