Preventing HIV/AIDS in Young People: A Systematic Review of the Evidence from Developing Countries

The challenges posed by HIV have progressed inexorably during the past decade, especially for young people in developing countries. At the same time, many lessons have been learnt about developing and implementing programmes for young people’s health and development, including programmes to prevent the spread of HIV. In 2004, the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team on Young People decided that it was time to review the progress that had been made and to look again at the evidence for the effectiveness of interventions, focusing explicitly on interventions to prevent the spread of HIV among young people in developing countries.

This report is an attempt to rise to the challenge by providing systematic reviews of the evidence for policies and programmes to decrease HIV prevalence among young people, as a contribution towards achieving universal access to prevention, treatment and care (7) and attaining the Millennium Development Goal on AIDS (8).